Gundam Seed Destiny: Misconception
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: The Continuing Adventures of Alexis Pierce after Operation: Stardust.


Alex's breathing rasped in her ears as she floated in silence. Nothing was visible, the darkness was absolute. Was she really dead? She tried to move, only to find herself still bound up in her flight harness.

She almost panicked, realizing her normal suit wasn't working properly. She hit the emergency reset button and the bottled air started to push the carbon-dioxide poisoning out of her suit. Lights started flickering back on, showing that her normalsuit was reinitializing.

Her Gundam would take longer to restore power, but at least Alex had eight hours of air left. However there was nothing around on her monitors. Earth, of course, hung above her, but there were no ships or mobilesuits on her receivers.

There was no way she could make it to any base with her current air shortage. She hit the S.O.S. signal on her radio and fired the emergency flares.

What had happened after her final battle of Operation: Stardust?

* * *

The ZAFT Cruiser _Hildago_, a Nazca-Class warship, reacted to the all-signal S.O.S. emanating a point nearby in space. Captain Reginald Hart looked up from his paperwork. "What is going on?"

"It's a strange S.O.S. signal and flares. Blue flares at 20 degrees bearing starboard, 15 degree up," the radar officer's reported. Why someone would use blue flares, he didn't know. S.O.S. flares were always red or orange.

"Probably some damn civilian that doesn't even know how to use his equipment," the captain complained. "Inform command of course deviation and change course to intercept zero-zero immediately!"

Two hours later, the operator at the radar station called out, "I've got a return. It's small, possibly a yacht or something."

"Try to signal it again," the captain ordered. "Broaden the frequencies. Maybe their receiver is out of alignment."

"Hard return, I've got a signal. Unencrypted, but high powered like a military band. Just not a frequency anyone I know uses. Querying identity and cause for emergency to Bogey-One," the communications officer called out from next to the radar operator. He gasped suddenly, looking at Captain Hart. "Object identifies itself as RX-78GP03 Gundam, that it is lost power and drifting with low life support."

"It's a _Gundam?_" the captain snapped out. "Level Two battle-stations! Get ready to launch the GINNs!"

"Gundam RX-78GP03 again repeats that it is low on life-support," the communication officer called out.

Alex Pierce stared at the unusual ship that was approaching. It didn't match anything in her FIFO, though it did looked more like a Zeon design. But the ship had identified itself as a ZAFT cruiser _Hildago_. Was ZAFT a breakaway Zeon faction? She had to admit that not all Spacenoids were evil; it was only the fanatics from the Delaz Fleet that were the truly evil side of Zeon. And the manipulation of the Earth Federation during the conflict had been horrifying.

But that didn't change her duty. She brought up a control panel and tried to turn on the Minovski reactor, only to find that it locked itself out due to damage in the containment coils. Without it, she wouldn't be able to initiate the self-destruct. She tried to frantically reroute the commands to start up the reactor. She wasn't worried about its long term viability; all Alex needed was enough energy to blow the Gundam up. She was so intent, that she lost track of time and the ship.

At least until a bolt of light flashed across her forehead. Alex's hatch opened up to admit three ZAFT crew members clad in green normal suits. "Hey, are you all right?" called the first one.

"Dammit!" she responded, smashing the screen in frustration. "Yes, I'm all right." She unhooked her umbilical and allowed herself to be taken into an airlock. Hesitating a moment, she finally undid her helmet. "Lt. Alexis Pierce, Earth Federation Forces. 78-G002891 assigned to the _Albion_."

Captain Hart raised an eyebrow at that. "I don't recognize that affiliation. Is it part of the United Earth Alliance?"

"What?" she replied. "The EFF is the main military defense force of the Earth Federation."

"Don't worry about that now. It looks like you've been in a battle and you might be just confused. Let the doctor's check you out," he said. "Welcome to the _Hildago_."

She nodded mutely, giving up her service pistol. She was now effectively a prisoner.

* * *

Alex stared at the ceiling of the infirmary several days later. She'd been confined for almost a week. She would have tried to escape, but knew the futility of trying to escape on an unfamiliar ship. _And_ her premonition warned her that the two soldiers outside her door would be very tough to take down. That seemed odd to her, as normal soldiers shouldn't be a match for her precognition. Perhaps they were also Newtypes?

The door swished open and Captain Hart entered. "Ah, Lt. Pierce. I have a small treat for you. If you would accompany me?" the officer asked. He led her down a corridor as two guards followed discretely behind them. He waved toward the open view port. "Aprilius-1, the heartland of PLANT!"

"Are those a new type of colony? They look so different from the standard O'Neil cylinder," Alex asked, looking at the hour-glass shaped colony. "How do you move them?"

Reginald frowned. "Those are the most standard colonies in space."

Alex could _feel_ that this man wasn't lying. "But- that doesn't make sense. I'd have heard of them before."

"If it is a deception that you are playing at, it is amazingly thorough, Pierce. We don't know what to make of you, so we are turning you over to PLANT directly. Hopefully they can untangle the mystery of your existence." He saw her tense up and started to look over her possibilities. "I'm sorry, but you will have to be confined until this is cleared up. Handcuff her."

After she was cuffed, Reginald led her to the brig. He wondered what would come of her in the next few weeks. But he had many important duties to look after, like the rebuilding after the War.

* * *

"Alexis Pierce, an officer of a non-existent military force with a Gundam that no one claims to have built. A Natural found drifting in space." The official from PLANT looked her over from across the table in the bare interrogation room.

"You forgot that my favorite color is sky-blue, I like Soft Rock and bubble baths," she replied sarcastically.

"Cute. The Atlantic Federation has no records that you were ever born, nor your claimed mother or father. Your Gundam has... unusual characteristics. Its power plant is revolutionary, yet it has no phase-shift armor and its I-Field technology is different from any anti-beam technology we currently have even thought of. In essence, you are an impossibility. Either you arrived from another planet or you were flung to this space and time from your own universe." The official waited a minute. "But however corny that sounds you are still not a criminal and PLANT does not keep prisoners without due process and cause. You will be released to civilian status. However ZAFT would like to ask you if you would like to be hired as a civilian consultant. Many of the technologies inside your Gundam can prove very useful."

"I don't know that I could do that, sir. Revealing the secrets of the RX-78GP03 project would be against my orders." She slumped. What was she going to do?

"You could apply to emigrate to PLANT and even join ZAFT. There are many possibilities, of course."

It was like he was not even listening to her.

* * *

Alex stared at her fridge, frowning at the bareness. She'd have to see about using the voucher for more staples. She moved back to the main (and only) room of her studio apartment and flopped on the pristine bed and picked up her portable computer, scanning the contents. She would have thought there were jobs needed here. But she was woefully under-qualified for everything. Well, that wouldn't drive her screaming insane within a few days.

And with the advent of common robotics, there weren't even menial jobs while she went back to school. She had no credit, no military pension. She was a nobody in a system where everything was tracked.

Alex then slammed a fist on the tough wall that she was leaning against.

So it was only six weeks after being released to civilian life that Alex Pierce walked through the recruitment doors of the local ZAFT office. She had finally realized that she needed to be a part of something larger than herself and her only real skills were her piloting and soldiering. And every time she thought about visiting Earth, she sensed (in nightmare vagueness) that it led only to death and imprisonment for her.

What was so wrong with Earth, she wondered with a shudder?

She found herself in an abbreviated basic training, pitted against super-human Coordinators that had superior physical qualities. They were faster, tougher and even smarter than her... which didn't stop her from beating many of them in any purely combative skill.

She felt eyes on her as she went through pistol combat training, plugging shots in the center of pop-ups' heads and hearts.

Gilbert Durandal stared at the enigmatic woman on the gun-range below through the armored windows. "You are positive that she's not a Coordinator?"

The trainer from the ZAFT academy shook his head. "Every genetic assay on her comes up negative. She has at least eight genetic disorder diseases that are removed from all Coordinators during creation. But look at her scores. She's in the top three percentile of _Coordinators_. Her reflexes are phenomenal."

"And no signs of alterations or drugs, either. So she's not an Altered." Durandal shook his head at the thought of the Earth's Biologic CPUs, people pumped full of combat drugs. "She seems to know herself to an amazing degree for a Natural. What is her knowledge?"

"She's going to graduate quite quickly. She is very expertly trained and skilled, with more talent than many Coordinators. Are you sure she isn't some ploy from Earth?" the trainer asked.

"No, I do not think so. While she is from an Earth, she is not from our Earth. We are lucky in that. I can't imagine we would have done so well in the war if Naturals had been so gifted," the Director of PLANT said pensively. He wondered for a moment if Alex Pierce would ever find out how he manipulated her to get back into military service?

Probably not. Not even many Coordinators would have noted the subtle psychological tricks to force her her to do so.

* * *

The sense of unease from the observation booth finally went away, allowing Alexis Pierce to float into her combat 'zone.' Bullets started cracking into the center ring of head and heart on the targets.

"All right you chumps! You passed basic pistol. And then some! Got get changed and we'll start in on unarmed combat," yelled out the instructor.

Alex followed the rest of the group to the locker room to switch into a tough exercise outfit. This was one thing that was different from the boot camp that she had gone through originally. She followed a girl that she'd been bunking with named Jillian Hearst. She seemed like an 'okay' sort, if a little immature.

But, as she was only sixteen, that could be expected Alex guessed.

"Come on, Granny! Shake a leg!" William Sporas catcalled out. The dark-haired coordinator had darkly exotic look of Itallian descent.

"I'm only twenty-four! Just because I'm not a punk kid like you, Will, doesn't mean I'm over the hill!" she shot right back.

"You were certainly looking it on that last run! Seriously, you were barely ahead of Albert... and he sucks," Will said. Albert Hindel was probably the least athletic Coordinator any of them had seen, being barely five percent more effective than top notch Natural athletes. "And you took days to recover from that."

"Guess it's lucky that piloting a mobilesuit doesn't require me to be a track star, eh?" she snapped back. While being a Newtype was better than a normal human (nearing a new level of ability) Coordinators were more broadly and physically advanced. They not only had reflexes that equaled a Newtype, they were stronger, faster and tired less quickly. And then the mental advantages were quite pronounced, any coordinator was able to process and calculate things far faster than her. Luckily, being a pilot did not require programming skills.

"We'll see," Will replied.

The instructor had them paired off and started showing them some new throws. He watched Alex struggle along side of her super-human class, but she was keeping up with them... for the moment. Then he had them doing light sparring, where she seemed to do much better.

It was late that evening when Alex was doing her heavy weight training, trying to get herself within shouting distance of a Coordinator's strength. That was when she felt a coldness getting closer. She started stretching on the weight bench, loosening herself up. She was not even remotely surprised when William Sporas quietly sidled into the weight room through the side entrance.

She waited until he was right behind her to ask, "How are you, Will?"

That stopped him a second. "I must be getting sloppy."

"Maybe." She rolled out of the seat as his punch passed through where her head had been. "What's your problem?" she snapped out as she finished her roll and onto the balls of her feet.

"Nothing that beating a skanky Natural like you won't cure," he replied nastily, hiding how shocked he was at failing to knock her out instantly.

"I object. I'm not skanky, _bastard_." Her blue eyes seemed to locked on his almost-black ones, but she was aware of everything and actually staring at his collar.

"I don't know what you are thinking, Natural, of joining ZAFT." Will started sliding around the exercise equipment. When he was within reach, he snapped out a punch that she lazily knocked aside.

"I emigrated to PLANT and I really only have my soldiering skills. And I try hard not to be racist," she said as she snapped out three fast punches.

Just then, Jillian Hearst walked into the room. "Eh? What's going on?"

The male Coordinator stepped back and then relaxed to his full height. "Nothing. We were just having a philosophical debate." He turned and walked out of the weight training room.

"Oh, thank goodness. I was afraid I was going to be late," Jillian said worriedly as she walked over. "I'm sorry I couldn't warn you, but I figured catching him in the act would be the best way to protect you."

"I don't need protecting, Jillian. I'm a big girl," Alex almost snarled out. She took a rein to her temper. "Thanks for being there. I know most of the class wouldn't."

The younger girl nodded slowly.

* * *

Six month later for their final classes, they were being sent out on a live-fire training exercise into the Debris Field. William Sporas had been incredulous that Alex had been given seniority due to her 'nebulous' previous experience. They were just barely starting the mission when Jillian's GINN suffered a mechanical failure and started to lose power on her main thrusters.

"Back to the barn, Jillian. Stay with the mechanic and get a full report. We're going to maintain position until we verify that you've returned safely to the _Independence._" Alex flipped a couple of switches on her communication console. "Captain Ijme, Jillian is returning to the _Independence_. She's got some thruster issues."

"Roger, Alexis!" Jillian called back as she swung around and headed back to the ZAFT battle cruiser as it confirmed her return.

Once she was confirmed back in the ship, Alex led William and his friend Hiro deeper into debris field. She could feel his emotions starting to ratchet up, the impending attack coming up. "You don't want to do this, dumbass," she muttered to herself. Then his emotions spiked, even as her GINN dodged out of the way oh his shots. She flicked on her external radio. "What's the meaning of this, William?" she said for the record.

She dodged his next set of attacks. "Oh, come on. Once could have been a mistake, twice is definitely murderous. Fine, if that's the way you want to be. Sporas, cease and desist before I have to use deadly force to defend myself!"

His response was another set of shots that she evaded around easily. Inside his GINN, William was starting to worry. He knew that she was a Natural, her genetic records proved that. He was shocked that she could even pilot that mobilesuit, much less as good as she was doing right now. "Damn it. Why won't she die?"

Hiro suddenly opened up, but even William could tell that his heart was not really into it. The two GINNs attacked their leader, driving her deeper into the Debris Field. The next attack was well coordinated by the pair, but their target just flipped in a spin that caused all of their shots to miss.

"Okay, no more Ms. Nice Girl," Alex said to herself. She suddenly changed course, slamming the feet of her GINN into a large piece of debris from a colony. Using the radical stop, she launched herself backward stitching a line of fire on William's suit.

Williams started laughing. "Oh, so _sorry,_ Alex. It looks like someone loaded your cannon with paint rounds."

Alex just snarled, continuing to fire her 'useless' paint round at him. William grinned even as he sent more shots, but failed to hit her anywhere effectively. Suddenly, her GINN spattered paint-pellets on his mono-sensor, blinding him for one second. Alex suddenly unsheathed her GINNs close-quarters blade and removed William's head and weapon arm.

The other GINN was shocked at her sudden action, giving Alex enough time to grab William's cannon. "All right. This has gone on long enough. William, if you don't stop right now, you are dead," the New Type said as she leveled his cannon at the drifting wreck.

"Dammit! How?" William shouted. He toggled on his radio. "Fine. You got me."

"Hiro, you can lead the way back. I think I've been shot in the back enough today," she ordered.

* * *

Alex saluted Captain Ilje. "Reporting as ordered, sir!"

The slightly stocky Coordinator nodded. "Alexis. This is a fine mess you landed on my lap."

"Pardon me for saying this, but I was the one that was attacked," she replied frostily. Was she going to have to fight to get that brat cashiered?

"Well, you didn't fall over yourself to let them kill you," Captain Ilje replied sardonically. "Now I have to figure as way to save my career while I see one of councilwoman's son be shot for dereliction of duty and murder."

The blonde New Type covered her gasp as best as she could. "Sir!"

"I can't have that poison in ZAFT. Trust must be maintained within the militia," the captain explained.

"Permission to speak freely?" Alex asked.

Ilje wanted to roll his eyes. He could definitely see the mannerisms of an ingrained military with segregated ranks in her training. "Go ahead," he said.

"I am one hundred percent in agreement that Sporas should not be allowed to stay within ZAFT, sir. But... he's just a kid. I don't think he's really mature enough to realize what he was doing. And his friend was just going along with that, sir."

"Coordinators mature at a faster rate than Normals. But I see where you are going." Captain Ilje rubbed his square jaw thoughtfully. "You've given me an idea or two. You are dismissed."

Alex stepped out of the captain's office and started walking in the micro-gravity. Up ahead of her, her friend Jillian waved. "Alex!"

"Hello, Jillian! Did they find some sabotage on your GINN?" Alexis asked.

"Yes, though that was pretty obvious that they eventually would by the time you got back. I hear they are looking to space those two," she replied worriedly.

"Hopefully not. That would be a waste for a couple of kids. I don't want them at my back or in ZAFT, but death is too final." Alexis stared out into the stars moodily. Was she forever going to at the center of conflicts with her fellow soldiers?

Eventually, the two Coordinators were cashiered and imprisoned for assault, as with Alexis' blessing, the attempted murder charges were dropped. For her forbearance, Alex graduated as an Elite, which sent mixed signals among the soldiers of ZAFT.

* * *

"Alexis Pierce, reporting for duty on the _Minerva!_" the blonde-haired woman said, looking uncomfortable in her deep maroon uniform. Had it really been over six months since she had graduated? She saluted from the gangway airlock entrance.

"At ease, Alexis," Arthur Trine said, receiving her salute. "We aren't commissioned yet, so we are still a little informal. I'm 2nd in Command, Deputy Captain Trine of the _Minerva_ under Captain Talia Gladys."

She shook his hand. "Good to meet you, sir. I understand you guys are a little behind due to new upgrades being added to the ship?"

Arthur nodded. "That's correct. But the new anti-beam shield will be incredibly useful."

"The I-Field, right?"

"Correct. Along with the new reactors, the Minerva is an almost entirely different ship than it was planned for. But I understand you are going to be assigned to the second, high-performance Gundam we are loading up." He cocked an eyebrow at that.

"I think someone has a sick sense of humor at that, but yes. The Nobility Gundam," she said as she strove to not roll her eyes. How come it couldn't just have a number designation like RX-78 or GPO-01?

"They redesigned the after-hull section to fit its main docking clamp and armor covers, but it certainly sounds impressive, once it goes through its trials. We just finished the new Impulse Gundam's trials, too. It's a real beauty. It has that new 360 degree screen set up also."

Both had been walking the entire time, coming to a door. "Oh? Who's the pilot of Impulse?" she asked.

"Shinn Asuka. He's a new pilot, but he's trained specifically just for the Strike core fighter and the Impulse," Arthur explained. He opened the door. "Captain? The new pilot?"

Talia Gladys looked up from her paperwork in her private office as Peirce walked in and saluted. She stood and saluted. "Thank you. We're a bit behind schedule, but I guess we have you to _thank_ for that," she said solemnly, though she let a bit of her good humor leak out. "But the Minerva will be a much better ship for it."

She didn't quite hold back her grimace. "Yes, sir!'

"I've been briefed on your unique situation by Director Durandal himself. It's pretty amazing, but we shall do our best to prove ourselves worthy of using that technology for the betterment of humanity as a whole," Captain Gladys said with not even a slight hint of hesitation.

"That- makes me feel much better, sir. I appreciate your sincerity," Alex replied. "Are we going to be part of the parade going on today?"

"No, we are excused from it. We've got far too many things to do. They've barely finished the hull upgrades on the _Minerva_, so while we are technically space-worthy, it would take a drastic emergency to get me to move!" she said with feeling.

* * *

Stella, Auel and Sting walked through Armory-1 in their unassuming, civilian clothing after Stella's embarrassing run-in with a young man with red eyes. The side-access to hanger #6, where the three ZAFT Gundams they're going to hijack, was quickly accessed and used. In a blitz of gunfire and blood, they killed the guards.

In front of them were three Gundams.

Chaos! Gaia! Abyss!

Three new prototype ZAFT Gundams that they were here to steal. They broke out of the hanger and started to rain death down upon the hated Coordinators, targeting their hangers full of empty mobilesuits.

Stella was quite in her element, chopping or gunning down any hapless ZAKU or GINN that got in her way until Athrun and Cagalli took refuge in one. Athrun found himself on the defensive immediately; the Altered pilots of Phantom Pain began double-teaming him with savage glee.

That was when the Impulse Gundam appeared, saving him from the two pronged attack just after he'd lost his left arm. Those new Gundam's had definitely impressed Athrun. He stuck around long enough to repay the Impulse Gundam back, but he almost paid for that with his and Cagalli's life. His worry about Cagalli's wounds drove him on to retreat. He was directed to land on the _Minerva_ though, as it was the only safe place now.

The Chaos Gundam had moved to start potting some more GINNs from the port area again while Gaia fought the new Impulse Gundam. Another three exploded as easily as anything else, when he missed- and missed again- and missed a third time against a dark blue GINN.

Alex Peirce shouted, "Don't get cocky, bastard! Don't think you can get away!" Why did it always have to start with stolen Gundams? She had a bad feeling. Her GINN responded sluggishly, almost losing its leg to Chaos' beam counter-attack. This was not a very high performance unit and it was hurting her ability to attack the Altered piloted Gundam. She was getting little flashes of sense from one of the enemies and the red Gundam.

Newtype potentials!

Sting was beginning to get upset. His Gundam was so much better than that trash GINN and yet he couldn't _quite_ hit it. He managed to duck a beam shot at the last second as Impulse Gundam reentered the combat, causing the blue GINN to duck too. The three mecha spun through the air of the PLANT colony. Right behind them came two ZAKUs that peppered the area.

"Watch it!" Alex shouted. "You nearly got me too!" She suddenly got a much, much stronger psychic feeling from the white ZAKU. Newtypes were suddenly growing out the woodwork.

"Get out of here! Your GINN is no match for them!" Shinn shouted out, ducking out of the way of Gaia's beam attack. This was starting to look bad. Luckily with the arrival of the white and the red ZAKU, the battle had turned more even.

"Don't you dare try to coddle me!" Alex shouted, even as she pushed her GINN at full speed towards the nearby Abyss Gundam, forcing the stolen Gundam back before she nearly took his head off with her sword.

Shinn blinked, who could do that type of maneuver in a GINN? His lapse of concentration nearly cost Alex her life as the three stolen Gundam's focused on her for a crucial second.

Rey Za Burrel was almost shocked at the strange feeling he was getting from the GINN. It was like nothing he'd ever seen. Lunamaria noted that he stopped. "Rey?"

In a blur of actions in the cockpit, Alex took the only option that would keep her alive, sacrificing her GINN's head, weapon arm and a graze across her backpack while retreating.

"Why won't that GINN just fall down!" Stella complained, watching the GINN duck her long range blasts as if they were nothing.

It was only a few minutes later into the fight that Lunamaria had to drop out, as her thrusters had been damaged by the sneak attack.

Sting snorted. "It doesn't matter, they're retreating! I'm much more worried about that red Gundam and the white ZAKU. Its delayed us! Focus on breaking out through the colony's walls!"

It became a freewheeling fight again, but the three stolen Gundam's managed to break free long enough to smash through the Armory-1's colony walls and escape into space. Rey and Shinn were unable to stop them from breaking free, so followed them outside through the hole in the colony wall.

Alex landed her damaged GINN next to a ZAKU back on the _Minerva_. "Damn piece of junk," she yelled out as she made it to the ground level. Even the damaged ZAKU had beat her back to the ship, though it had allowed itself to 'fall' through the sky to get here.

"Hey, isn't that the GINN we were going to off load? I don't think that thing's been maintained in weeks. It was supposed to be replaced by a ZAKU and stripped for parts," the ground chief said in shock.

Alex slapped her forehead. "Damn it. That was just stupid of me. I keep forgetting that ZAKU are the newer mobile suits. Damn-damn-damn."

Lunamaria gave Alex a weird look at that. "Are you easily confused?" She had just finished getting bandaged up.

The blond gave her a glare, and then turned her attention to other matters. "Let's talk to Trine about what we can do!"

"Do? My ZAKU is beat up," Luna complained, but followed along willingly. She'd already started having the ground crew repair her mobilesuit ASAP.

They arrived on the bridge just as Captain Gladys order, "Minerva launch!" She turned to look at the two pilots. Alex quickly pointed discretely at Trine while saluting. The captain nodded and saluted back.

Alex noted an extra civilian. That person gave her stomach flip-flops, just like every time she'd seen him. Gilbert Durandal, Direct of Plant and Commander in Chief of ZAFT, which put him way too close for her comfort.

"We must recover those three suits no matter what!" Durandal said with feeling.

Alex whispered to Trine, "What should we do? That GINN I took out is trashed and the red-head got her ZAKU beat up too."

Trine gave her a look. "Why did you take a GINN?"

"A stupid mistake. It was the first MS on the catapult," she replied with a shrug.

"Well, we are going after the snatch team's ship. So if you feel up to it, try to get ready to launch into combat," the 2iC said. "I'll talk to the captain, but we'll probably need you for close in mobilesuit defense."

The _Minerva_ banked as it fired its engines, coming out of the damaged Armory-1 colony. Up ahead, the Impulse Gundam and a white ZAKU were fighting a mobile armor that seemed to be holding its own even against two of them. The pilot of the mobile armor took stock of the arrival of the battleship attacking his own mothership and immediately retreated.

In the armored and lowered bridge, Captain Gladys looked over the situation. "Ready for combat at full speed. Level One battle stations!"

Arthur Trine called out orders. "Ready cannons and missiles. Raise the forward I-Field. Accelerate to combat speeds."

Alex was readying one of the new ZAKU for combat, going over the controls. "Much better," she noted to herself. Phase-shift armor, a heavy beam rifle... and the ubiquitous heat axe. Why no beam sabers? It seemed in every universe, ZAKUs used heat-axes for some reason. She did wonder where that third ZAKU had come from though. The ground crew was repairing its damage.

Trine appeared on her communication panel. "We're going to hold off on launching you, Alex. The enemy battleship is retreating while we are following."

"Have you ever been in this situation before, sir?" Alex asked.

"No, I can't say I have," the deputy captain said.

"These things are meticulously planned by your enemy. So you might want to get worried when things look to be starting to go your way, because it is probably a trap," she said as she slumped in her seat. Standby, drat. Well, she could play around with the color scheme before she launched.

"We'll keep that in mind. _Minerva_ out." Trine narrowed his eyes in thought. It seemed Alex had good tactical instincts... or had been involved in this sort of thing before.

* * *

Shinn's Impulse Gundam was finally recovered, along with Rey's ZAKU. As he exited his Impulse Gundam so that it could be disassembled for launch again, he noted a ZAKU that was in the ready position, but its hatch was open while the pilot talked to the ground crew. She looked over at him and waved. She lowered herself down on the cockpit line.

"You're Shinn, right?" she asked.

"Right," he replied with a nod.

"Would you and your friends try to not get me killed next time, eh?" She pointed to the beaten up GINN. "Though some of that was because that piece of junk wasn't supposed to be used."

"Shinn Asuka!" the young man said, holding out his head. His expression had turned defensive.

"Alexis Pierce, recently assigned to the _Minerva_," she said as she shook back. Her eyes narrowed as she saw another mobilesuit pilot walk up.

The new pilot removed his helmet to show his long, blond hair. "Rey Za Burrel." He frowned as he also shook hands with the new pilot. She set him on edge.

"So who do you think is behind the theft?" Alex asked curiously.

"Has to be the Earth Alliance," Shinn said with feeling. "I didn't think they had such skilled pilots though."

"Oh?" she asked.

"Yes, those three fought with Coordinator level skills and reflexes," Rey offered cautiously.

"Not everyone needs to be a Coordinator to be a good pilot," the female pilot declared.

Lunamaria had wandered over while the finishing touches on her ZAKU were being handled. "Maybe, but all the really good ones are. Naturals just can't react quickly enough," the red-head noted. "They may be Biologic CPUs. But those are supposed to be banned."

"Biologic CPUs? And you guys are all Coordinators, aren't you?" Alex asked curiously.

Shinn looked confused. "You ask that as if you aren't?"

She just grinned. "I'm not." She tilted her head towards the other blond pilot. "So, Rey? Have you ever done card tricks?"

That confused the other three pilots, even as Rey just shook his head. "Why? Are you offering to teach me some?"

"Sure!"

Shinn, Rey and Luminara were all wondering if this new pilot was insane.

* * *

Alex's ZAKU launched down the accelerator. She fell in behind Lunamaria's own warrior ZAKU that was identical to her own, barring their active nano-paint jobs.

"Blue and gold?" Luna asked, taking in the pale-blue with gold trim.

"I was bored while sitting ready to launch. Beside, they don't have my Gundam ready to go yet. I don't want to play with a prototype in the middle of combat," Alex replied.

"The Nobility Gundam?" Shinn asked, suddenly curious in his Gundam Impulse as the five mobilesuits from the Minerva trailed after the retreating _Girty Lue_. Rey Za Burrell had been left behind as a rear guard, on standby. A very important job!

"Yes. But, on to more important matters," Alex said as she stared at her screens. "So will this be trick or trap?" She was starting to feel momentous portents building around her.

Lunimaria blinked, then screeched out, "What?"

All of the pilots, even the two GuAIZ pilots blinked at this. Shinn was the first to realize what she was saying. "This is the first feature in space that could be used for deception!"

Back on the bridge of the _Minerva_, Arthur Trine was starting to think something similarly. "Captain. This is too easy and straightforward. As it was pointed out to me, on a mission like this where we are reacting to the enemy... any time it looks too easy, we should prepare to be ambushed."

Captain Gladys frowned, but nodded. "Set Combat Level 1! Armor the bridge! Be on the look out for ambushing ships and MS." As the bridge lowered deeper into the ship, she thought harder. "I should have kept more mobilesuits back for defense."

"We weren't thinking about being the attacked," Trine reminded her. "Ready all CIWS fire. Be ready to maneuver immediately upon command!"

"Should I recall the Mobilesuits?" Meyrin Hawke asked. She knew that she'd feel much better with her older sister back to protect the _Minerva _with her ZAKU.

"No. We need to trigger the trap. Signal them to slow down so that we are slowly overtaking them." Captain Gladys was thinking hard.

"You are going to trigger their ambush?" Cagalli Atha asked from her seat, looking surprised.

"It's a remarkably bold plan," Durandal said. "Captain Gladys is a highly decorated officer from the War. I have the utmost confidence in her abilities."

Athrun clenched his fists, feeling impotent here on the bridge. He should be out there... doing what? This was not ORBs fight.

"You were right, Deputy Captain Trine. It does appear to be going too straight," Gladys called out.

"Heat source, coming around the asteroid... from behind! It's the enemy carrier! Confirmed as Bogey-One!" shouted the radar operator.

"Signal recall flares! Hard to port! Ready missiles!" the captain ordered. The _Minerva_ banked suddenly as the _Girty Lue _came swooping around, firing their own beams and missiles. "Launch Rey's ZAKU immediately!"

"That's one sharp customer," noted Captain Ian Lee on the bridge of the _Girty Lue._ "We may have to retreat, as our ambush is heavily blunted already."

Neo snarled. "I'll sortie out in my Exus with the Daggers! Let's see if we can take the wind out of their sails!" He headed to the elevator at the back of the bridge. His mobile armor rocketed towards the _Minerva_ in very short order, spitting death. The white ZAKU rose up to the challenge

Chaos, Abyss and Gaia were leaping from their ambush point within an abandoned facility on the asteroid, firing down at the formation of ZAFT mobilesuits. It was cunningly planned. Sting smiled as his first hit killed one of the GuAIZ, detonating it explosively. Stella's attack should have done the same, but a ZAKU had intercepted it with its beam resistant shield.

"Shai!" Lunamaria screamed out.

It looked like they were going to fight it out in the remains of this colony when suddenly flares lit up from _Minerva._

"Recall flares? But we just started our fight with the stolen units?" Shinn said as his Impulse Gundam dodged several attacks from a Dark Dagger, firing his rifle at it.

"It's a long walk home folks if they blow up our carrier!" Alex shouted, using her ZAKU's shield to block several more beam attacks. Damn it, she needed to start dodging more.

"Damn! She's right! If they can take out the Minerva, we are sunk! All they have to do is run away!" Luna shouted, fear rising in her throat.

"The _Minnie_ and Rey are giving them hell though!" Alex noted as she struggled with her controls. She had not realized it before, but the controls seemed overly complicated for her. It was purely a matter of becoming familiar with the controls, but the ZAKU's setup was very new to her and she wasn't getting a lot of time to get familiar with it.

The swirling dogfight of mobilesuits was drifting closer to the two battleships as they traded long range missile barrages. The Bogey-One was finding out that beam weapons seemed to do nothing to the large ship, as they were being deflected by some form of energy field.

Shinn and Lunamaria were doing the lion's share of holding back the three stolen suits while Rey dueled with the mobilearmor, while Alex and the lone GuAIZ were taking on two Dark Daggers.

"Kinda react like GMs," Alex muttered to herself. She decided to take it to the next level with a deep breath she let out on purpose, expanding her consciousness to a large degree.

Rey Za Burrel and Neo Roanoke were both nearly stunned by the sudden feeling of absolute danger that the pale-blue ZAKU started emanating. Even Shinn could feel something distantly. The pale-blue ZAKU seemed to shift into high gear as it charged on its own.

"Fool! Now you are finished!" the pilot of the first Dagger crowed, only to see all of their attacks miss spectacularly. "What's this?" he screamed-

-just before Alex unlimbered the heat-axe from in the ZAKU's shield and while dodging his beam shot, smashed it right into the cockpit!! The Dark Dagger exploded even as the ZAKU rocketed out of the area of the explosion.

Roanoke managed to dodge Shinn's Gundam even as he tried to keep his senses attuned to the strange ZAKU that was now charging the last Dark Dagger, which fared as well as the first one. "_Girty Lue_ we need an immediate retreat. Chaos! Gaia! Abyss! Cover the retreat at full speed!" the leader of Phantom Pain ordered, even as he rocketed back towards the spy-assault ship. What was that feeling he was getting from it? Why did it feel familiar, even though he could not remember it even slightly?

"Why are we running?" Stella complained to hide her fear of the sky-blue ZAKU as her Gaia Gundam unit flew backwards to the _Girty Lue._ "We can take these guys!"

"Stella!" Sting said in a warning that brought memories back on him using her 'safe-word' back on Armory-1.

"Retreating now!" she replied with alacrity, her eyes wild in almost-terror.

Auel snickered as he forced the Impulse Gundam back for a second. The _Girty Lue_ was firing up its engines to full power, even as the _Minerva's _mobilesuits swooped forward as if scenting blood.

"Captain Lee, activate Claymore!" Neo shouted as he passed the engines of the _Girty Lue, _even as Alex suddenly shouted out, "_Minerva!_ Emergency evasion!"

"What? Nevermind! Activating emergency contingency; Claymore!" the captain of the _Girty Lue_ shouted out, while on the _Minerva, _Captain Gladys snapped out, "Emergency evasion down and to port!" On the bridges of both ships, the crews worked frantically as they tried to follow their orders. On the back of the Girty Lue, compartments exploded outwards as they expelled three waves of micro-explosives filled with shrapnel. Then the laser-igniters of the engines fired even as the _Minerva_ veered off.

Alex shouted, "Evade! It's a trap!"

The Coordinators all blinked in shock at the oncoming wave, then quickly dialed their variable phase-shift armor to full coverage... just a moment before the 'Claymore' went off in their faces like a shotgun at short range. This had been a desperate, planned contingency as it would inflict catastrophic damage to any enemy pursuers but with the problem of a back-blast that could damage the engines of their own ship.

The GuAIZ's armor failed under the triple-wave of shrapnel, exploding as it spun out of control. The Impulse Gundam had hunkered down behind its fore-arm shield, coming off moderately better than the three ZAKU, which all took a bit of damage across all of their surfaces as they blocked as well as they could on their own shields. In the _Minerva_ alarm klaxons were blaring about loss of pressure and radar failure.

"Report!" Captain Gladys shouted. Hadn't they evaded the attack?

"We lost ninety percent of our upper radar systems! Damage control is reporting micro-punctures in six compartments and sixteen casualties! They are working to seal the compartments!"

"We lost one of the missile launchers, one Tristan cannon and the Isolde cannons are not responding!"

"Damn it! We were played for fools! How are our mobilesuits?" the captain asked worriedly. If they had lost all of those, they might as well retreat as fast as possible. They _might_ be able to escape.

"Impulse Gundam reporting his Phase-Shift armor systems is depleted and our three ZAKU are all reporting severe damage. Pierce is reporting minor damage and a shrapnel wound," Meyrin Hawke reported to the captain.

"Bogey-One has evaded! We have lost radar contact!"

Captain Gladys pounded her clenched fist into the arm of her command chair. She stood up and turned around to face Director Durandal. "Director, I am sorry to report that we are unable to continue pursuit at this time. I have failed in my duty."

Cagalli and Athrun were watching this closely as the leader of PLANT and ZAFT stood up responded. "Such matters are sometimes beyond all control. Tend to your crew and your ship, Captain." Durandal was looking at the screens with narrowed eyes, calculating things in his head.

* * *

Alex was sitting in the pilots ready room, poking at the bandage on her cheek. "My brush with death," she mumbled. Little cuts adorned her face from glass fragments.

"You are lucky to be alive," Shinn said from the couch where he was reading a magazine.

"I think we all are!" Lunamaria said from near the armored window, remembering her own terror as the enemy attack slammed into her ZAKU.

That was when Rey Za Burrel entered. He stood for a moment, looking across the room at no one in particular. "So Alex? You say you aren't a Coordinator?" He had a deep suspicion because of the strange feeling she had radiated during the combat.

She looked over at him, quirking an eyebrow in questions. "Naturally born, no gene-modification in me." Which did not mean _normal,_ she noted to herself mentally with an internal, wry smile.

"So why are you part of PLANT and joined ZAFT?" he asked coolly, blue eyes staring at her in an almost accusatory manner. He walked up to her, looking down at her right into her eyes.

"I don't seem to have any place on Earth _and_ I'm not a bigot," she replied with a frosty tone of her own. "It was also a ZAFT ship that saved me when I was stranded." She stood up to go to the ready room entrance. "If you are going to accuse me of something, get it out now." Her back was ramrod straight.

"How did you know how to defend against that attack?" Rey challenged loudly. "What do you know of the people that stole those mobilesuits from Armory-1?" He tightened his fists angrily.

Shinn pursed his lips, red eyes looking over at Alex's back even as Lunamaria gasped in shock.

"You have an odd way of showing your appreciation for someone saving your life. On the battlefield, you have to develop your intuition and reaction to your highest degree." She stepped out the door and let it close behind her as she clenched her fists in frustration.

"Ah, Alex! Just the person I wanted to see," Director Durandal said as he was leading a group that included Captain Gladys, Cagalli and Athrun towards her. Alex snapped a perfect ZAFT style salute instantly. "Never mind with that formality. I wish to personally thank you for your efforts and the lives you saved. Captain Gladys informed me that if the _Minerva_ had taken that attack head on, we would probably all be dead or captured."

"Just doing my duty, sir!" she called out while lowering her hand. She did not drop out of parade rest.

"That was an amazing display of combat capability. While the ZAKU is a fine machine, it is definitely not that high of a performance model."

Captain Gladys nodded at his comment. "We're a bit battered, so our mobilesuits will be doubly important for the defense of the ship. We can't even deploy the bridge back to the top due to battle damage." She shook her head in frustration.

"Permission to speak frankly, sir?" Alex asked the captain.

"Granted," Gladys replied, wondering where this is going.

"That bridge has to be the most asinine excuse for a design I've ever seen thrown up and made to work." Let's see what sort of officer she was, Alex thought to herself. "To move the nerve center of a ship, possibly during an attack seems very foolhardy."

The captain's eyes widened, then narrowed. Her lips pursed angrily, then she sighed. "That decision was not under my control."

Alex's mouth twisted slightly upwards. "But now it _is_."

"Intriguing. I have to say, Alex, that you are a very interesting character." Durandal was giving her an appraising look. "It's nice to hear someone tell it like they know it."

"As you say, sir. If someone doesn't complain about a design and its problems, the engineer will never learn of its problems." Alex was very serious and kept her voice entirely bland.

"But, as you say, it is under the Captain's control now." He just smiled pleasantly. "Lady Cagalli? You are probably tired. Why don't you and... _your _Alex go rest now?"

The _other_ young blonde woman nodded. "Thank you, Director."

'Your Alex?' the Newtype wondered to herself. There was something more going on there.

* * *

It was later that day. Alex looked up at her new Gundam, locked into the very under-sized weapon platform 'death orchid.' She put her hand on its foot. Would this Gundam be her death? The scarlet uniform on her seemed especially uncomfortable right now.

"This is the captain! We have been ordered to help with the demolition of Junius-7 before it falls to Earth. All hands, prepare all mobilesuits for operation immediately!" the personal address system suddenly blared.

Alex stared at the speakers, trying to parse the meaning when it suddenly became clear with shocking clarity. _It was a colony drop._ And the Captain was acting like it was just a demolition job. She broke out in a run, passing Lunamaria at breakneck speeds.

"Alex! Hey! I was just looking for you!" the red-head called out.

"Sorry! I've got to talk to the captain _right now_. It's a matter of life and death!" Alex shouted back even as she kept running.

"What? She's way too tense!" Lunamaria said with a frown. But life and death? Surely she was exaggerating?

The hallways were almost a blur. Her mind was in its hyperactive state, flashes of premonition of horror, of death, of disaster looming up before her! She finally slammed open the bridge hatch. "Captain!" Alex huffed and puffed, throwing a desperately fast salute.

"Pilot? What is the meaning of this?" Captain Gladys asked, her eyes narrow. They had a crisis to deal with, she did not need an interruption.

"It's a colony drop! They'll have a military escort to make sure that colony hits their target and can't be stopped!" she almost shouted. "This is no accident! This is an attack on Earth with a weapon of mass destruction!"

All of the bridge crew looked at her as if she were insane. Captain Gladys suddenly turned away from Cagilla, Durandal and Athrun. "What do you mean?"

"You don't just accidentally move a colony! And if it is headed to Earth, it is an _attack!_ We have to hit that ruin with everything we have immediately!" she cried out. "We don't have any time! Every second we wait puts tens of thousands of lives in danger!"

Cagilla gasped in shock. "Athrun! Do you think she is right?"

Durandal and Athrun both nodded as understanding dawned in them. "It makes blatant sense when stated in such stark terms!" Athrun finally said.

"Captain Gladys! Warn the other force to be on the look out for enemy forces and to move with all speed." Durandal turned to Cagalli. "Do you think ORB forces will be able to assist us, Prime Minister?"

Cagalli shook her head. ORB's forces were not stationed anywhere near this orbit.

"Meryin, do that immediately! Bring us to Level One Battle-stations! Ready all mobilesuits for combat." Gladys gritted her teeth in thought. "Alex, you will launch in the Nobility. We will need its firepower desperately with our battle damage."

"Aye aye, Captain!" she replied smartly, a hollow feeling in her stomach forming.

* * *

Shinn Asuka was once again in his Splendor core fighter. "Shinn Asuka, Impulse Gundam, launching!" The core fighter was launched out the smaller catapult in front of its torso and leg parts.

"Lunamaria Hawke! ZAKU Warrior, launching!" came from the red-headed fighter pilot. Her red Zaku was flung out into the void of space.

"Rey Za Burrel, ZAKU Phantom, launching!" came the order from the white ZAKU just before it launched.

"Athrun Zala, ZAKU Warrior, launching!" said the newest pilot of the Minerva. The ORB immigrant narrowed his eyes.

"Alexis Pierce, Nobility Gundam, launching!" came the last pilot. Wasn't his name supposed to be Alex? She was sure it had been and was wondering how they were going to keep from messing up com traffic.

Alex's Gundam was actually detached from the back as the retro-thrusters fired. On the Minerva, the upper armor shields swung back down over the empty bay, as Nobility with its weapon system was too big for normal launch.

The two large, weapon pods that the Gundam was attached to deployed fins around its engines even as the two hip mounted guns swiveled into place. They were dual action railgun/beam cannons, almost as long as the Gundam was tall. Finally the heavy beam cannon over the Gundam's right shoulder swiveled into place, doubling the length of the combined suit and war machine. Its Mynovski engine thrummed with power for its white and blue phase-armor and I-field.

In moments, the Nobility overtook the other mobilesuits as Alex fought through a flashback of Operation: Stardust. The colony there had not been destroyed before she threw her Gundam Unit 3 against the gravity sink bomb that the Zeon had been deploying to destroy the Federation Solar System Weapon. So she didn't know if she had stopped that attack of mass destruction. "Not again," she muttered to herself. "I won't let it happen again." She rammed the throttle full out, accelerating even faster.

On Junius-7, Izak Joule and his team were busy fighting the strange GINNs that were trying to stop them from destroying the ruins of the colony before it would impact the Earth. "To think that Coordinators would be behind such an attack!" he yelled out, firing his ZAKU's cannon, forcing the GINN back. He was very glad he'd been warned of the possible defense force, as he'd only lost one of his men so far and even he'd managed to eject.

Out in space the _Voltaire_ and the _Rousseau_, both Nazca Class Cruisers were bombarding the ruins at long range with their main weapons. They did not have much hope of actually breaking up the colony plate, but every little bit could help.

That was when the Nobility Gundam made its presence known, vaporizing a GINN that was lining up to try and gun down Dearka's ZAKU. Alex narrowed her eyes, panning her dual hip cannons and firing for where the the next two GINNs would dodge to. One was even faster than she expected, its pilots Coordinator reflexes throwing off her sense.

"Clear sector zero-zero-zero!" Captain Gladys shouted to her bridge crew of the _Minerva_. "On my mark, fire Tannhauser positron cannon!"

"Joule forces are confirmed clear of the target area!" Malik Yardbirds called out.

"_FIRE!_" the captain called out.

The positron cannon cycled then burst a huge beam that gouged a huge hole into the center of the colony plate, but failed to break it up.

Chen Jian Yee called out, "One minute and thirty seconds until the cooling cycle of Tannhauser will finish!" The huge Minovski reactors deep within the _Minerva_ gave power to the system faster than the positron cannon was designed for. It was now a matter of how fast it could cool.

"Prepare to fire Neidhardt, target is the opening we just cut into the heart of Junius-7!" Gladys ordered intuitively.

* * *

Off in the distance, Neo Roanoke of the covert group 'Phantom Pain' listened to the battle chatter. Reflections gleamed off his silvery mask. Why were the enemies of Earth helping stop this attack?

"Why don't we take another crack at that battleship?" Auel asked as he clenched his fist.

The captain of the Girty Lue responded for Neo. "We can't. The damage we took dangerously slowed us. If we assisted in destroying Junius-7, we would be unable to evade possible capture later. Even though we have the data from Gaia, Chaos and Abyss and how they were constructed, we must avoid capture. We must refuse ZAFT and PLANT from having any proof of our sponsors."

Roanoke nodded. "And we don't add much to the combat situation there with anything but confusion and chaos, something that doesn't need to put on them while they try to stop this attack. This is surprisingly heroic of ZAFT."

"You sound like you almost admire them!" Sting shouted as he slammed his fist into his palm.

"Actually, I'm wondering what they are planning to get out of this." Neo stared out the front bay view of the carrier. "You three head down to your rest now. There is nothing we can add. The captain and I will watch over this situation."

* * *

Back in the thick of the fighting, the captain of the rebels was screaming. "No! You can't stop us! Earth must burn for the sake of all those that died here!"

Alex just snarled at the zealot as she unlimbered the massively over-powered, super-beam saber as she flashed by that GINN, cleaving him in half. "So ten 'Earth' people for every one here? Any other idiots want to get chopped down to size?" she yelled out as Nobility landed with a heavy thud on the ground.

"I think they are all suitably terrified of you," Yzak snarked back with a huge grin on his face. He and two of his team started to plant the demolition charge. Though that voice sounded familiar somehow.

"Oh, it's you," Alex retorted dismissively. "I should have let that one get to you."

"We are supposed to be allies!" Yzak stopped to think a second. "Alexis? That Natural that think she's as good as a Coordinator?"

"Hello, bigoted Commander Coordinator! It's a distinct displeasure to talk with you again!" Alex chirped in an overly pleasant voice. Her Gundam leaped into the air, tracking its heavy beam cannon. Not there... not there... there!

Yzak's felt a headache building in his forehead. He did not know why he let her get with saying such things to a ranking commander. Maybe it had to be because she made him rethink his outlook on 'Naturals' and would not back down about it? He had to admit, in this day and age that a Natural in ZAFT was a bit odd, yet she did not care about such racism (as she put it.)

He wouldn't even let that compromising situation from when she was assigned to his patrol come up in his mind.

The heavy particle beam smashed into the ground, to no noticeable impact. Alex frowned. That really had felt like the best place. She fired again, just as _Minerva's_ missiles struck. Yzak's 'Joule team' was planting their third charge when Junius-7 shattered in five large chunks.

Athrun was having a hard time as he was stubbornly trying to implant another demolition charge. It was like riding an avalanche. He had to do it for his adopted homeland and the people he cared about there. Shinn blocked an attack by an out of control Coordinator in his GINN with his Impulse Gundam even as a warning was given to evacuate the surface.

Joule's team had retreated to their ships, putting their full thrust to escape back up into space as Junius-7 started to heat up from re-entry.

"I apologize, Director, but _Minerva_ will continue the attack to destroy Junius-7! Ready Taunnhauser for a blast on the largest remaining fragment!" Captain Gladys called out. The massive positron cannon cycled and then unleashed another blast, breaking up the largest fragment into six smaller ones. "Keep firing Tristans and Isoldes! Melt their barrels if you have to. Target anything smaller than fifty meters with Niedhardt missiles!"

The outer surface of _Minerva_ was starting to heat up. Malik Yardbird finally called out, "Captain, I will be unable to maneuver to provide continuing targets at this angle. We must slow down!"

"Do it! Recover all cannons and missile launchers," the captain responded. That was it, they had done all they could.

"Captain! We have still not recovered Impulse, Nobility nor Athrun's ZAKU warrior!" Deputy-Captain Arthur Trine called out.

"Push all sensors to full! Try to reestablish contact with them!" Gladys ordered.

That was when two more fragments exploded from a heavy beam weapon, even as Nobility swooped by a larger piece that was almost one hundred meters long and bisected it with the super beam saber. The outer surface of the Gundam was starting to warm up to cherry-red temperatures.

"Well, that answers one question. But where are Shinn and Athrun?" Trine asked worriedly.

Athrun was frantically trying to get some control over his damaged ZAKU, even as Shinn streaked after him. "Leave me! You can't carry us both!" the green-eyed ace pilot yelled out.

"Don't talk stupid! I'm not going to let you die!" Shinn shouted right back. Impulse grabbed the floundering ZAKU and then fired its engines to slow them down.

That was when _Minerva_ was finally able to detect the two mobilesuits. Nobility had already been rocketing downwards, fins reconfiguring to push the mobilesuit and heavy weapons pack into a more streamlined form. Alex winced as the two mobilesuits thumped into the top of the weapon-system attachments as she swooped under them.

"Mynovski engine system to full! Thrusters to maximum!" She stood the Nobility on its engines even as the repulsor effect of the Mynovski particle field pushed against the Earth's electro-magnetic field.

With a mighty splash, they hit the water at barely above falling speed and quickly floated back up out of the water.

"Sheesh. You two sure are a pain to keep around!" Alex said with a laughing smile.

Athrun was still a bit stunned at the whole situation. First it was the colony drop, then the Coordinators spouting off about his father's dogma and the final cataclysmic confrontation and destruction of the shards.

"Hey, Alex! You better not beat up your ride like this too much or they'll put you back in a ZAKU!" Shinn replied, a half-grin forming on his face.

"Like they expect to go through combat without some damage!"

The _Minerva _floated above them, ready to recover them all.

* * *

Alex was sitting in the pilot's ready room again. "Still don't know why we are headed to ORB," she said aloud, reading a magazine on fashion.

_In the background, a television reporter was talking about the disaster and the horrible loss of life. Accusations were being flung towards PLANT and Coordinators._ _Even though PLANT was sending humanitarian aid to Earth and the damage was not as bad as some had estimated it would be._

"The lead representative of ORB offered to fix us up for putting our lives in so much danger to protect Earth," Lunamaria said from the other end of the coach where she was reading a romance novel. "I wonder if we will get shore leave here?"

"Yeah, that would be nice! I'd love to go to a real beach! Maybe even boating!" the other pilot replied.

"Aren't you from Earth?" Shinn asked, pulling a book off his nose where he'd laid it to block the light.

Alex rolled her eyes. "I'd never even seen the ocean until I'd entered the military. Where I lived, we had lots of mountains. Lots and lots of mountains. Oh, and large amounts of snow in the winter. Just because there are lots of places on Earth that I want to visit doesn't mean I'm not from Earth."

Lunamaria's eyes lit up. "You lived out in the country?" She obviously had a slightly slanted view of what country life was like.

"Sure. Living on a farm is a lot of work most of the time. Joining the military was a good way to get off the farm!" she said as if she was disinterested

"How about your parents?" the red-headed pilot asked.

"They... passed away." Alex quickly stood up. "I think I need a breath of fresh air." She quickly exited the room and found herself topside as _Minerva_ chugged along ten minutes later. The sea breeze quickly cooled her roaring heart. While Alex had not seen her mother killed, she had felt it and would go to her grave knowing it was all her fault.

If she had not joined the Earth Federation Forces and became a pilot, discovering her Newtype potential, the Zeon commander that had captured her would not have kidnapped her mother. Alex rubbed her eyes fitfully, trying to ignore the tears. The shattered upper armor seemed to be the perfect backdrop for her emotions.

Rey Za Burrel stared at her from a distance, his face impassive as he saw her breakdown. It had seemed suspicious when she left, but his worries were totally unfounded.

* * *

The next morning _Minerva_ powered into a dock at ORB. Alex watched Cagalli, Athrun and Director Durandal leave the ship, talking animatedly while Captain Gladys and her senior officers met with ORBs own military leaders. She headed back down to the ready room where Rey and Shinn were sitting and talking.

"Are you two still talking about Shinn's attitude problem towards Representative Cagalli Atha?" she asked as she sat down. She slipped two packs of cards down and quickly checked them to make sure they had all their cards. Casually, she palmed a card from one stack. She then shuffled both decks separately.

"It's none of your business," Shinn replied stiffly.

"Sure, because a team mate insulting a head of state will have _no_ impact on me what so ever!" she shot back with a glare. "What's your grief? Why are you carrying such a large chip on your shoulder?"

"Because of the Athhas family, my parents and sister died!" he snarled back, his red-eyes almost flashing in anger.

"So she killed them herself?" she asked in mild shock.

He gritted his teeth, then almost snarled out, "No, it was her father and his ideals. Because of that ORB was attacked and my family died."

"That's not a good outlook for a soldier. Every soldier should hate civilian casualties, as should any good leader. _But it happens._ That's war. It's not pretty, it's not good. What if you accidentally killed a young girl's family unknowingly, trying to do the right thing?" Alex had stood up and was glaring right back at him.

Rey looked at her questioningly. What was she driving out?

"So?" Shinn snapped back. He was back to being defensive again.

"So you would feel bad to that girl, right? But it isn't like you wanted them dead. You probably would have tried to keep them alive. So should you accept her blame unconditionally? Should you let her heap abuses on you?"

"Ah-!" Shinn suddenly understood as she bludgeoned him with her logic. "It's not the same."

"How the _hell _do you know that? That Athha might have had little choice. From what I read of him, he tried to do the best, protect his sovereignty and Cagalli seems sincere. Why should you ruin her life like that for something her father did?"

"I think that's enough," Rey said, stepping between the two. Shinn just glared at her and then stomped out the door past a pair of startled red-heads. Meryin and Lunamaria looked at each then shrugged as they entered the ready room and started chatting.

"Fine. Come here, Rey. I wanted to show you that card game." She set one of the decks out for him. "I'm going to pick a card and I want you to try and guess it by picking the same card out of the pile. If you don't think you got the right card, we'll put it to the side."

Rey rolled his eyes. "This is a bunch of silly superstitious rubbish."

"Eh, just try it once. What can it hurt?" she replied glibly, projecting as trustworthy as possible feeling to him. Surprisingly it worked

It went remarkably quick until the tenth card. Rey looked frustrated for over a minute as he went through his deck. "I don't see it. This is stupid."

"I'll put that card to the side." Alex continued on, making light jokes but mentally projecting the face cards as vividly as she could. After five minutes, she finally asked, "Are you ready to see how well you did?"

Rey rolled his eyes, but nodded as he laid back. Alex started flipping cards over. After the fifth one, the Coordinator sitting across from her looked a bit intrigued and leaned forward. Meyrin noted that and looked over, looking surprised as she saw every card matching.

"Neat! That's some trick!" the bridge officer said brightly. After the 20th card she gasped, drawing Lunamaria's attention from her magazine.

"That's not possible!" Lunamaria complained as they kept going. The two sisters moved over to look more closely, watching as every card matched perfectly.

"Wait! What about that card I couldn't figure out?" Rey exclaimed.

"Oh? That's just the frustration card to see if you are being truthful." Alex flipped it over. "As you notice, it's not in your deck. I kept it in my pocket. But you knew you didn't have it, didn't you?"

"How did you do it?" Meyrin asked.

"What are you talking about? It was all Rey's work." Alex just beamed.

Rey just stared at the cards in shock. "There must be some trick."

"Why don't you search and see if you can find it then?"

* * *

Shinn kicked at a rock as he walked towards the monument dedicated to all the slain people during the battle here. The small monument stood at the edge of the cliff, overlooking the ocean. Fresh flowers were laid out around it. He pulled out a very pink, girly cell phone to listen to a message from his dead sister. He clenched his fist around it, but carefully closed the phone and put it in his pocket.

"Are you all right?" a slightly older adult asked him. His purple eyes were almost hidden under his ragged brown bangs.

"Just... remembering. And wondering if I made the right decision after the battle here," the young Coordinator said. "Why did you come here? To pay your respects?"

Kira nodded slowly. "So many people died that day. I wasn't able to stop the fighting and protect everyone."

"You were there?" Shinn asked in surprise.

"I never wanted to fight, but I had to protect my friends." Kira stared at the monument silently.

"Kira!" a female voice called out. It was a young woman with pink hair, carrying flowers. "I brought some more flowers to replace the ones that are wilting."

Shinn watched her place the flowers, realizing that someone like this woman was bringing flowers to the only monument for his family. While he had just run away and not thought about visiting, throwing himself into the ZAFT military.

"There! That's better!" Lacus exclaimed with a sad smile. "It's very sad that the ocean wilts them."

"Thank you very much," Shinn said with suppressed feelings. "Do you... live around here and do this often?"

"No, we are refugees from Junius-7's impact. We lost our house, but we are still alive. So that's a good thing," Lacus replied sadly. The waves had still been strong enough to shatter that place. Luckily they had the shelters underneath it.

"I'm sorry. We really tried to stop it, but it was too big," the younger man said with feeling.

Kira looked surprised. "You were one of the ZAFT pilots? You must be from the _Minerva _that is being repaired here."

"And now we Coordinators are all being accused of being in league with those rebels that did the attack," Shinn said bitterly. He barked out a sudden laugh with little humor given out. "Even the Natural on our crew."

Kira suddenly grinned. "A single Natural on a crew of Coordinators? That's an unusual reverse."

Lacus giggled at that at the inside joke even as poor Shinn looked confused. Suddenly, a rumor he'd heard after the war clicked. "You are _that_ Kira? The pilot from the _Archangel_?" Shinn suddenly clenched his fists.

Kira noted that, but kept his face passive. "Yes, that's me."

Alex's comment rang back in Shinn's ears. _'Every soldier should hate civilian casualties, as should any good leader. But it happens. __**That's war.**__'_ His shoulders suddenly sagged. What if that is me in a year? Someone hating me for a mistake made in battle? "It is... nothing." He turned and walked away from the uncomfortable meeting.

Kira and Lacus shared a worried look. What had that been all about?

* * *

Alex was sitting at the edge of the repair bay, watching as ORB workers did their wonder in repairing the _Minerva_. She felt someone walking up behind her. "Hello," she said, turning to see the crew chief of Morgenroete, Inc. walking over. "Ma'am? Am I getting in your way?"

"No, I'm just taking a break. I heard from some of the technical crew that you were something unique on that ship; a Natural among Coordinators." Murrue Ramius looked over at the mobilesuit pilot queryingly.

"Guilty as charged. That sort of bigotry is not my thing." Alex shrugged.

"Chief! You almost forgot your lunch!" Andrew Waltfield said as he walked up.

"Thanks, Andy!" Murrue replied, grabbing her sack lunch.

"Looks like you saw some action in the last war, Andy?" the blonde pilot said, looking over the almost gleaming form of _Minerva_ again. He stiffened at that, then laughed.

"Can't put one past you, can we?" the Desert Tiger said with a big laugh. "Yeah, I got chewed up. Lucky to be alive, it only cost me my arm and an eye. And a very dear compatriot."

"Wish I could get a look at that ship's power plant, but they've got armed guards around it at all time," the ex-captain of the Archangel said wistfully.

Alex just grunted. She really hoped they weren't trying to pump her for information. But then again, a fully functional fusion reactor would be a big thing here, rather than business as usual in her home reality. Perhaps she should pay more attention to their feelings. Carefully, she extended her metaphysical senses.

"I don't think I remember you from the ZAFT," Andy continued amiably.

Alex raised an eyebrow at that. "You were part of ZAFT?"

"Yeah, but I'd definitely remember a young lady like you!" He swished his cup of coffee carefully, then took a flavorful sip. "AHHHHHH!"

"You and your coffee, Andy! Quit bugging the nice pilot." Murrue continued looking at the ship with interest.

"Just talking shop!" the older man said happily.

"No skin off my nose. I only joined ZAFT recently. Just over a year ago." Alex played with the uncomfortable collar of her red uniform.

"And a top graduate of the academy! I'm quite impressed!"

The brown-haired ex-captain gave him a look, then frowned as she did take in the uniformed officer. "That's right. They only give that to top graduates in ZAFT, don't they?"

"I had some previous experience," Alex noted with a quick grin as she felt their suspicion growing. "And they kept underestimating me because I was a Natural. I'm more than happy to take advantage of their ignorance. I am a bit talented!"

"Well, we have to get back to work at putting that beauty back together. It was nice meeting you, Alex." Murrue waved as she led Andrew off. As soon as they were a bit further off, she gave him a look.

"What? I told you, I would have remembered someone like her. She's new to ZAFT, that's all." Andrew just shrugged, the scar across his eye making him look very rogue-like.

"An officer, right out of Academy? And a Natural. Forgive the pun, but that isn't very natural," the ex-captain noted. "And her identity is totally bogus. That town in the Atlantic Union doesn't even exist."

"It's a big mystery, eh? You think it's a lie that she's a Natural?" The one-eyed man gave her a serious look.

"I'd say that's pretty suspect. That's why Terminal is so interested in her. They say she was involved in PLANT's new, clandestine Helium-3 project, though there is no proof of that."

* * *

Cagalli Yula Atha sat in her private rooms that night, wanting to bash _something._ This was all insane. The outcries for revenge against PLANT were obviously forced. While the damage had been horrible, the small tsunami that it had spawned had only killed five thousand people around the whole world. Another ten thousand had been killed by the rocks smashing into a few cities.

She needed to get out, she decided. "Athrun! I need my bodyguard!" she yelled out. "But just Athrun!"

The green-eyed young man appeared very quickly. "Are you all right?" he asked worriedly

"Yeah! Go change into something nondescript. I'm going out for a night on the town!" After she shooed him out, she quickly changed into a T-shirt and shorts while slipping on a set of large sunglasses and a hair band to hold her hair back. If she had to listen to either Seiran push for the joining of the United Earth against PLANT this evening, she was going to hurt someone.

Athrun was wearing a nice leather jacket and jeans, also sporting a pair of sunglasses. "Somehow I don't think you are planning on a fancy restaurant."

She just snickered at that.

They were out and into the city, just wandering into different stores. She led them finally to a gaming parlor, playing different games. Tiles, checkers, video games and even cards. It was while wandering by a fighting video game using popular mobilesuits from the last war, that she ran into a figure that she recognized. Athrun was her permanent shadow, almost glaring at anyone looking at her.

That ZAFT pilot was racking up a lot of points on that game.

"Hey! Play fair, Coordinator! Let some of the naturals play!" came a drunken shout from an old, fat and bald man.

"I'm a Natural, dumb-ass!" she yelled back as she continued to fight through the desert simulation while fighting four other players. She had some ear-phones in as she was jamming to some music.

"She keeps picking on Odarian! That just ain't natural! He's one of the best players here!" yelled one of the skinny kid's friends.

"Oh, hey Cagalli! Athrun!" Alex called out without turning around. "I didn't think this was your sort of thing!"

The leader of ORB looked aghast. Was their disguise so pitiful? "You must be mistaken!"

Alex took a moment look away from the game, earning her a death. "Damn it! Take over the open control! We'll double-team them! Though that's an interesting look."

Cagalli glared at her, but she'd turned away already. She could just disappear... but she was just treating her like anyone else. Just like back in the desert resistance. She slid into a spot and slotted some coins and started playing. "Just trying to let my hair down," Cagalli said finally. She picked her favorite mecha, the Strike Rogue with her own pink color scheme.

Athrun just rolled his eyes, though his lips were curled up a bit in amusement. She actually had her hair _up._

"Wow... that's _really_ girly. Are you _trying_ to blind your opponent?" the ZAFT pilot asked as she worked the joysticks and foot pedals.

"Alex, she's being mean!" Cagalli said with a laugh. "What are you doing here?"

"Blowing off some steam. I don't go bar crawling any more and this is a decent way to earn some money to buy a few gifts," Alex responded. She mouthed 'Alex' to Athrun with a questioning look.

He just nodded at her question.

"Hey, buddy, why don't you play?" asked a slightly drunk female, trying to hit on the stoic bodyguard.

"Well, I'm a Coordinator. That might not be so fair," he said quickly to her.

"Nah, you just can't earn as many points and you are worth massive points for any Natural that can bag you!" she responded with a happy smile showing her crooked teeth. "Just select it on the entry screen."

If it would get him away from her, sure. He dumped a few coins and picked a very generic ASHTRAY with a wing pack. He was immediately jumped clumsily by a whole pack of Normals using variations of Freedom, to no surprise. His reflexes allowed him to weather the attack, until a very familiar pink MS joined in to help his side.

"That's not very fair," Athrun said to Cagalli as she helped thrash that group. Then he started to go after everyone else. He quickly found out that the person that Alex had been going after regularly had Coordinator reflexes and was a good challenge.

At least until he and the fellow were potted by Alex. She just sang out, "So sorry, 'Alex!'"

Twenty minutes later, the trio headed back out onto the street to look for some food. Alex leaned over to Cagalli for a semblance of privacy. "So, a bit frustrated?"

"Political issues," the younger woman replied.

"Oh, thought it was you and 'Alex' there needing to disappear for a week and resolve... issues," Alex said with a grin.

Athrun snapped a look at Alex, glaring at her. "That's none of your business!" The people in the crowd gave him a strange look.

"Sheesh! Too close for comfort, I guess. I'm not a fan of politics or politicians (begging your pardon, ma'am) most of the time. Usually a bunch of people having to come to uncomfortable compromises. I don't know if I could figure out a compromise without _compromising_ my ethics. I'm just a soldier." Alex took a bite of an apple she'd bought. "I probably wouldn't figure out where I'd compromise myself down to ahead of time, so I'd defend where I'm at till the bitter end."

Cagalli blinked and looked at her in surprise. That was an effective summation of her current problem. That started giving her a few ideas. If this treaty with the Earth Alliance Forces was being that heavily forced, so that ORB would not be invaded again... perhaps she needed a fallback that she could 'agree' to to try to keep ORB's mandate of non-interference as much as possible.

Suddenly, Alex had a flash of insight, seeing a future where Caggali was dropping from sprays of blood coming from a head shot as men with knives and pistols attacked from _this_ crowd. She snapped out her hand so fast even a coordinator would have trouble following it, throwing the apple while relieving Athrun of his pistol while shouting, "Assassins!" She kicked Cagalli hard in her stomach, folding her almost in half even as she raised her pistol and fired up into the dark of the night, emptying the entire clip.

A rough looking fellow took a bullet that had been aimed at the young leader of ORB, dropping his automatic pistol in shock as blood blossomed from his chest. Athrun had recovered, grabbing a knife from another while kicking a gun from a third. A fourth fellow snarled, deciding to take out the girl that was protecting his target. He snapped out three shots, _that she dodged with her back turned._ He almost looked stupidly at his pistol for a second until Alex threw Athrun's empty pistol to impact into his forehead to stunning effect.

Athrun felt something within him burst, unleashing his inner potential. The crowd was screaming as Athrun and Alex fought almost back, their fists and feet blurring at superhuman speeds, barely keeping ahead of their foe's _Coordinator_ attackers. Cagalli was kneeling, gasping from the pain of Alex's kick. She desperately rolled out of the way from a slash at her neck.

Alex was fully immersed, unleashing her Newtype, psychic potential as she fought the rough-looking Coordinators, dodging even before they'd fired or slashed at her. Athrun was totally focused as he fought to protect Cagalli.

In just moments, the attackers were all down or unconscious. Alex was still hyped on adrenaline, only being shocked out of her zoned out-state with the arrival of the police.

Athrun yelled out, "Protect the representative of ORB! Get her into your car, _now!_" He had a pistol in his hands.

The police officer loooked surprised, but when he looked closely at Cagalli's face, he realized that she was _that _Athha out for a night of fun. "This way, Lady Athha!"

Alex relaxed, almost shaking from her exertions. "Ah, damn it. I was just wanting a _normal _evening on the town."

Athrun just grinned, but he was following Cagalli to the car. He worried that he would need to investigate where these Coordinators had come from. And that would require a visit back to his original homeland, PLANT. He frowned to himself. He just did not want to leave Cagalli unprotected. He would have to convince her that staying with her security detachment was for the best in the future.

* * *

Lord Djibril stared at the gigantic screen of his opulent office in anger. "How could that team fail? It should have been easy for them to overwhelm one Coordinator while our assassin shot that woman of ORB!?" At his foot, a Persian cat rubbed up against his leg.

"We don't understand it ourselves, but this could actually work out better for us. For such a strong proponent of neutrality to be attacked by what looks to be Coordinator assassins from PLANT, we'd have sown the seeds of discord within ORB so that we can forces it to join our EAF," a cut-throat politician on the screen replied. "We've employed enough cut-outs that there is nothing to trace back to us hiring those killers."

"And they didn't even know that they were trying to kill their beloved Athrun Zala nor the Prime Representative of ORB," Djibril said with a cold smirk.

"Our only worry is that our Altered agent was wounded and left behind some blood. We must use our influence among the Sierna family to block an investigation there," the man on the screen said.

"Yes, we must take advantage and fan the hatred against Coordinators. The PLANT must be destroyed as soon as possible!" the current leader of Blue Cosmos said. "You must make sure to expose in the paper that it was foiled by a Natural."

"That is what does not make sense. How could that Natural have possibly fended off those attackes? Is PLANT working on Extending techniques? That could prove to be a very dangerous situation, if we start to face off against Extended Coordinators!"

Djibril nodded as he thought. "We will have to create another facility to study that or create the next generation of Altered. We will just make sure to fail to mention that this Alexis Pierce was a member of ZAFT on shore leave from the _Minerva_." That damn ship was already making itself a huge pain to his plans. And his sources had not even heard that there were two more G-Units before they appeared.

"This works out to our advantage then, but we still have much to do."

* * *

The _Minerva_ was finally repaired and was ready to set out. On the gang-plank stood a lone figure in the dress-white uniform of the Union of Orb, her security detail following unobtrusively to the edge of the ship. "Captain Gladys! I wish I could say that this was something I look forward to. With the increase in hostilities and the attack on PLANT, a state of war now exists again."

"I understand, Representative Atha. You have been very generous, but I understand that this places ORB in a precarious situation," the captain of the _Minerva_ replied. That Andrew Waltfield had made that clear to her that if she didn't leave now, they would probably be taken prisoner in either hours or just a few short days at most.

Cagalli frowned, deciding to be truthful. "It is worse that that, as ORB will be joining the Earth Alliance Forces. While we will only be deployed defensively and advocating peaceful reconciliation, the threat of possible invasion from the Earth Alliance Forces or PLANT again was not something we could ignore. Or something that I could block. You will find no safe haven in ORB after this."

"I understand, but you must do this for your people." Gladys looked thoughtful for a moment. "Where is Athrun Zala? I expected to see him at your side?"

"He had a journey to make," the blonde said passively even as her left hand tightened, the small, delicate ring weighing on her. "Though he promised to return soon. Give my thanks to Alex for saving my life again. God speed your journey!" She turned and left the bridge.

Talia rubbed her chin as she walked back to the now-permanently 'armored' bridge. "How go the preperations to depart?"

"We are ready and released by the dockmaster at your convience, Captain!" the pilot called back.

"Cast off!" the blonde captain ordered. It was only ten minutes later that it became evident that they were being 'escorted' out of ORB territorial waters. "This is very suspicious."

The captain's worry was proven when up ahead of them, the Atlantic Alliance Force's Pacific Fleet appeared on the horizon. "Set Combat Level Two! Have all pilots report to their mobilesuits!"

It soon became apparant that _Minerva_ would have to fight their way through the fleet to escape the trap, as the fleet from ORB was under orders to keep them from returning, something that Cagilla would later find out much to her outrage.

"Set Battle Condition One! Launch Shinn and Alex for mid-range defensive/offensive action; hold Rey and Lunamaria for defense of the ship!" the captain called out.

Impulse and Nobility quickly launched to intercept EAF's Daggers, which soon learned that the two Gundams were not something to be trifled with. Minerva weathered long range missile attacks, causing Captain Gladys to wish that she had Phase Armor for her ship and not just the I-Field which was not getting much use at this point. Missiles and cannon fire were traded both ways.

"Fine! Ready Taunnhauser! Target the lead carrier!" Gladys ordered.

So it was to the shock of everyone when the attack was intercepted by a strange, crab-like mobilearmor that had some sort of energy shield.

"Ah, crap. I'm pretty sure that even my Nobility can't shrug off a positron cannon of that power," Alex called out worriedly. "Shinn, we need to get in for close combat with melee weapons!" This was something she'd actually gone over in her head, how to counter something like Nobility. She fired her mega-beam cannon towards the fleet, only to see it also easily absorbed by the the Zamza-zah again. "Bastard!" Even her mega-beam saber would be of very limited use here. She fired a double-salvo of micro-missiles.

"Right! _Minerva_ launch Sword Silhouette now!" Shinn yelled out, even as he blasted another Dagger down.

"Back off!" Alex yelled, lauching another pair of cannisters that seperated into dozens of micro-missiles. She suddenly tracked to the right cruiser in the EAF Fleet. Just as the Zamza-zah roared over to intercept her again, she suddenly used her thrusters to spin and fire at the far left cruiser. "Ha! Can't be everywhere, jerk!" she said, even as that cruiser exploded.

The _Minerva _continued to weather the missile storm as the two ZAKU stood on the top of the ship, providing extra firepower against any mobilesuits that came close. "Ha! Yeah! Go, Alex!" Lunamaria crowed. The ZAFT battleship angled to the left, even as it continued to salvo missiles and cannons at the fleet barring its path.

Rey just narrowed his eyes as he could feel waves of... _something_ coming off Alex as she fought. Was this her secret? He latched onto the feeling, suddenly tracking and shooting at two Daggers that he could feel that were threatening him to stunning effect. Both exploded as they were hit at the long range of his ZAKU heavy cannon.

That sinking of a cruiser seemed to upset the Zamza-zah mobilearmor, as it rocketed towards Nobility in a furious charge. The Nobility showed a grace that belied it's size, dodging the slightly smaller mobilearmor and being behind it suddenly. She took the opportunity to charge at the next wave of oncoming mobilesuits, firing with her hip and main cannons to devestating affect.

Her missile salvo and actions had distracted everyone from Shinn though, who had switched packs and now had a huge sword that he used to cut two Daggers that belatedly realized what he was doing. With a yell, he charged, the Zamza-zah and cut off its front legs. It rocketed backwards, realizing its predicament, but Shinn was right on it with his now red Impulse.

"Hard to port! Ready Taunnhauser!" Gladys shouted. The _Minerva _suddenly veered back towards the opposing fleet even as the positron cannon deployed. "Target and fire!" With a crashing boom, the left carrier was vaporized and exploded in a huge ball of fire.

Back in the ORB fleet, the commander Colonel Todaka looked in concentration at the battle from the bridge of his carrier. He definitely did not like how effective the new ZAFT unit was. They would be tough opponents if he had to face them. Already, he was planning how to negate their advantages with the tools he might have.

Nobility twirled ungainly through a salvo of missiles and continued to rain blasts down on the fleet itself, destroying another cruiser. Impulse finally impaled the Zamza-zah, ending its threat. The fleet signaled retreat, backing off at high speed.

"Not bad, Shinn!" Alex said. "It looks like they discovered we were a bit hard to chew on, eh?"

Lunamaria giggled at that, even as Rey just rolled his eyes. Shinn turned back to head to the _Minerva_, to see the ORB fleet in the distance.

"They stayed there the whole time. Would they really have fired on us if we had to retreat that way?" Shinn asked angrily.

"I think so. It appears we can not consider ORB to be our ally or even neutral in the future." Alex looked over at _Minerva_ as the recall signal was sent. "And there's our call home."

* * *

Alex had not known that the top section of the Minerva had an outside gun range. She watched as Rey Za Burrel finished his shooting. She could feel when he sensed her, their eyes locking from different levels of the ship. He nodded and then headed inwards.

"Why not? Shooting things is always fun," Alex muttered to herself. She found the armory officer and checked out a pistol and several boxes with clips. She fiddled with the electronic controls a bit, setting it for one of the hard pistol target set-ups. She raised an eyebrow at a couple of the new options on this system. It could record her?

She looked around quickly. It was kind of late and it appeared no one was going to show up in the fading light. She quickly started the set, scoring remarkably high. After five minutes, it stopped popping up new targets so she released her breath. Feeling around, she still did not feel that anyone would be showing up shortly.

She turned on the record setting, activated the set-up again and... closed her eyes. She tried to open up her inner sense, to see without her eyes.

Back in his room, Rey Za Burrel felt something like a wave or pressure from what he was learning was Alex. He frowned, wondering what she could be doing that would cause that. He'd go check into that in just a few minutes after he finished his shower.

Shinn Asuka felt _something _for just a moment, but it was elusive and he was hungry. So he put it to the side.

Captain Talia Gladys looked up from her paperwork at her desk as an alert from the computer popped up. "Someone is trying for a record breaking attempt on the pistol range?" She sighed, but she could use a short break. Even in this day and age, someone had to verify such things. She hit an accept button, quirking an eyebrow as she saw Alex Pierce firing on the range.

The pop-ups were being hit, but not with the accuracy the captain would have expected for someone attempting to break _that_ record. The sub-view switching to show that Alex was alone, a look of quiet calm on her face.

It was not until the sub-view switched to a close up of Alex's face that she saw the impossible happening. "Computer, continue to focus on the face." The computer followed her orders like the idiot savant it was, totally ignoring the fact that Alex was attempting to do one of the hardest shooting range test with _her eyes closed._ Talia Gladys even noted that she had on the ear-phones for protection, so she probably could not even _hear_ them popping up.

That record was in no danger, Gladys noted. But she should not be scoring anywhere near that high either. She pulled up the specifics of the test, to refresh her memory that the target pop-ups were indeed still set to totally random.

And then it was over, leaving Gladys looking at the score in shock. She had hit each target well enough to disable the person, if not the close and tight spacing in the heart and head for kill shots. She steepled her hands in front of her, ignoring her paperwork for a moment. What had she just seen?

Nothing that she read concerning Alexis Pierce had hinted at that sort of ability. Gladys frowned to herself more fully. Perhaps no one had actually looked close enough to see it?

* * *

Alex laughed at Lunamaria's complaint as they entered their shared quarters. "You really shouldn't have tried to eat that second serving. Meatloaf is heavy." She sighed as she wished that she had half of the red-head's figure. She figured she was permanently stuck as a scrawny woman that was always going to be a bit over-muscled.

"Real friends don't say 'I told you so!' Anyways, what is up with Rey? He was giving you the evil eye again during supper," Lunamaria asked. "Did you guys get into a fight?"

"No, though he showed up just as I was locking down the shooting range. Almost like he expected me to be hiding a body or something." She wondered at his he felt her?

"So suspicious! So, where did you hide the body?" she asked with a laugh.

"I was interrupted before I could finish my nefarious plan to off a certain blond-haired paranoid," she replied acridly, then laughed at Lunamaria's stunned face.

The other pilot just grinned as she realized she was being tweaked, then noted an official message on the screen. "Alex? There's a message here that the Captain wants to see you. Just hit five minutes ago."

"Really? I guess I'd better go then. I'll be back in a bit." Alex headed to the captain's office, brow furrowing in thought. She knocked on the door just a minute later.

"Enter." Captain Gladys was sitting behind her desk, accepting her salute casually. "Have a seat, Alex."

"Thank you, sir." Alex sat attentively, interested in what the senior officer had to tell her or give to her as an order.

Captain Gladys just stared at the blonde for a moment. "How long were you going to hide your special abilities, Alex?"

She just blinked. This was coming out of left-field. "What do you mean, sir?"

"You ability to react to danger, before it has acted upon you. I admit, I would not have spotted this, but for the fortunate happenstance of having been the officer flagged to witness your record attempt on the pistol range. Where I saw you hit targets with your eyes closed... without error."

'Crap,' Alex thought. That's what it meant on that recording panel. "Ah-" She froze up suddenly. There was a sudden menace from the captain of the ship, which caused her eyes to widen. Then she felt a spike of glee and realization from the captain.

"You are psychic! You could _feel_ my sudden hostility, when I pulled up a memory of a hated instructor at the academy." Gladys's eyes were wide in wonder. "Even though I kept my face entirely straight, you could feel my emotions. What a powerful ability."

"That's a large assumption," Alex shot back even as her back stiffened.

"No, that's the only logical reason I can come up with for why you can move before your enemy has even attacked you. It's amazing to see in action. You used it to save the life of Cagalli Atha in ORB and _Minerva_ against Bogey-1. It took the _Minerva _over an hour to collate the combat footage, but it is unmistakable... if you know to look," the captain continued unperturbed.

Alex's face was flinty as she nodded. "Yes, I have a certain set of abilities that most people would put into the realm of the psychic."

Something flitted through Talia's highly advanced brain for just a moment. She'd only seen this expression on the pilot's face when she was in the presence of... Director Durandal. "This extends to more than combat, doesn't it?"

Alex thought about lying, but realized that was not something that could be hidden from a logical mind. "Yes, it is. I get some feelings and impressions from everyone I meet." Though it is stronger from those with active talents. Talents that she suspected might lay within some people she'd met.

"Is there a reason that you distrust Director Durandal so intensely?" Captain Gladys asked bluntly, eyes narrowed as if she were trying to see into the pilot's soul.

Alex really wished her talent helped her choose the right thing to say, but it seemed geared more for immediate physical reactions of fight, flight or avoidance. She looked away a moment. How to be truthful without making it sound too bad? "I don't know for sure. I just know I feel an indistinct threat from him. It could be because of the politician's mindset, having to make unpleasant compromises. His policy record is quite impressive and shows a strong commitment to the peace process." She grinned ruefully. "It's not like these abilities come with user's guide. They were something new from the Earth I'm from."

"Really? I can appreciate that." Captain Talia Gladys stood up and leaned over her desk to look at Alex, eye to eye. "I do not appreciate my pilots hiding secrets that can impact the safety of my ship."

"I did not want to end up a permanent lab rat or on an autopsy table somewhere. A girl's got to protect herself some way in this cold and cruel world," Alex replied with a wan smile. "I'd rather that some secretive government agency didn't decide I was a weapon instead of a person and cut me up to figure out how my brain worked."

Talia Gladys looked over at the picture of her and her son, nodding in understanding. "You have my protection, Alexis Pierce. Only the people that I trust most in life will be told on a need to know basis."

That was probably not enough, but Alex would take what she could get now. She took herself back to her room, shaking her head when Lunamaria asked her about the meeting. "I can't talk about it."

* * *

Kira stared at the ruins of the house they had taken refuge in after the fall of Junius-7. It had been thoroughly destroyed by the forces sent to eliminate Lacus with prejudice. "I guess we were lucky they underestimated our security."

Andrew Waltfield nodded. "Ah yup. Of course, most people would not have thought to seed the edge of the yards with nanites that react to gunpowder residue! Those set off the perimeter alerts very well, but we will have to figure out something additionally in the future." The Desert Tiger shook his head ruefully. "To think that only yesterday were we planning to head back to PLANT and then we are attacked by them."

"Kira! A visitor!" Murrue called out, stepping out of the way of the older woman that had arrived by car.

At her news of Cagalli Atha's wedding and learning that she was being held essentially against her will, even if she was cooperating, Kira stood up. "I will have to voice my objection."

* * *

The sun was setting at the ZAFT base of Carpentia as Savior in its flight mode towards the hanger of _Minerva. _It transformed into his human-form, shining and red and came down for a picture perfect landing. The pilot was met in the hanger by almost all the pilots and all of the technical crew.

Alex looked over where she was helping with the maintenance on a ZAKU. "Someone new?" She wandered over behind Shinn and Lunamaria. Was that the symbol for an officer of FAITH?

Athrun removed his space helmet to accept the salutes of everyone present. Shinn's surprise at his elevation to FAITH was almost complete.

"So, have you returned to ZAFT?" Shinn asked cuttingly as Athrun was leaving the bay.

"Something like that," Athrun replied.

"So, who's with me to take a quick peak at the new mobilesuit?" Alex asked excitedly. She was starting to go over the different parts, trying to figure out what it could and could not do.

"Should we do that when he's not here?" Shinn asked.

"We're not _robbing_ him or stealing anything. People and mobilesuits get beat up, so you have to be ready to switch in a hurry. Why do you think I still train in a ZAKU occasionally?" she replied. "I'd like to get flight certified again. I was originally supposed to be a fighter pilot. That way I could fly the Splendor Core Fighter."

"You were trained as a pilot? Really?" Shinn asked. "Your past is a total mystery. Records doesn't list much at all."

"That doesn't surprise me." Alex scratched her head as she walked around the Savior. "It's not really stuff that you can see in a normal report."

"Is that part of why you are a member of ZAFT?" the red-eyed pilot asked as he looked over Athrun's mobilesuit himself.

"Yeah. Not really supposed to talk about it though. ZAFT _was _the one that found me when I was stranded, so I'm thankful to them. It's so damn weird though how flat the command structure is though." She frowned as she took in the turbine intakes that were currently pointed at the floor. They looked like some sort of weapon mount at first glance, but were hinged wrong. "That's odd."

"What's odd?" Shinn asked, looking over at her. She was in a military before? Which one? And why wasn't that in her records?

She was still looking at it. "This thing transforms into a mobilearmor like Chaos?"

"What? It does?"

* * *

The _Minerva_ and _Nyriagongo_ both powering out of Carpentia Base the next day, heading out to sea and the Suez Canal where an important battle needed to be fought. Like everyone else, Alex wondered how the change with Captain Talia Gladys being promoted into the special forces FAITH would affect them.

Should she aspire to FAITH herself? She was an immigrant to PLANT and a Natural. It was times like this that she felt so alone and adrift. So when the call to battle suddenly rang out, she welcomed it. She dashed to change out of her duty uniform and into her flight suit.

"Say? Alex, why don't you wear a skirt?" Lunamaria suddenly blurted out as she settled her own flight suit collar on.

"Are you kidding? Like I have a figure to show off! Besides, I pride myself on being very professional." Alex waved it off as she headed towards the Nobility.

On the bridge, Gladys used the intercom to speak to her pilots. "This is the Captain! Shin, we are going to launch you to intercept the Windams. Athrun, though I can not order you to help-"

"While I may not be under your command, Captain, I am still part of this ship. I will launch in its defense!" Athrun declared.

"Thank you, Athrun!" She switched over to the other three pilots. "You three will be maintained for defense or to strike at their base when we detect it."

All three pilots grumbled a bit. Alex could see her point, the Nobility really was not designed for an aeriel dogfight like this. And the ZAKU would be useful to plug in any holes in the defense.

It quickly became a rather large dogfight, as Impulse and Savior faced off against all the Windhams and Chaos. Alex continued tapping her fingers on her console. "I hate this. I wish I was as flexible as any of the other mobilesuits. I wonder if we could cobble a regular flight pack up from spares for the Impulse?" she muttered to herself.

"That's not a bad idea, Alex. After the battle, we can talk to the ground crew and see what we can think up," Rey said suddenly.

Alex winced. She'd left her com open. She would probably be hearing about that from Trine or the Captain. "You think so? I was just complaining mostly. I'm not sure the Impulse's packs would work anyways, as the power-flow would be backwards."

"Say what? Are you saying your nuclear powered?" Lunamaria almost shrieked out.

"Yes, but not in the way you are expecting. I have a micro-compact fusion reactor within my mobilesuit and within the weapon platform attachment," Alex explained. "I'm in no danger of running out of power. Just missile ammunition and rail-rounds."

"Cut the chatter folks!" Trine finally called out.

"Sorry, sir!" they all three called back.

That was when Abyss was detected, heading for the _Nyriagongo_ at high speeds. Rey and Lunamaria were deployed, causing Alex to sigh again. Just then, she felt a large spike in awareness from Shinn.

Shinn screamed out in frustration. He was taking way too many hits from the Windhams, especially that special one. He would not... _could not_ let them kill him! Suddenly his awareness reached a breakthrough. Impulse suddenly surged, spinning and dodging in a red and blue blur, pegging six windhams in rapid succession.

Neo Roanoke managed to dodge, suddenly worried as the Impulse seemed to suddenly explode into action. "Sting! Watch out for that combiner unit! Something has happened. Something dangerous!" His Windham managed to dodge again, just barely. But he was suddenly on the defensive.

Sting growled as he continued to duel with Athrun in the skies. His first thought that this new mobilesuit had an inexperienced pilot was obviously very far from the truth.

Neo's Windam and Shinn's Impulse rocketed along the shore, only to be interrupted when Gaia slammed into the Impulse, as he had not been expecting the attack. And she had done it without laser finders, something that did not always work. "I won't let you kill Neo!" she shouted.

"I won't hold back!" Shinn yelled, suddenly ripping out his beam saber, slicing a wing off the quadruped.

Stella quickly shifted to human mode and desperately fought off Shinn's onslaught. "He's scary! He's really scary suddenly!" This was nothing like the fight at Armory-1 and then later in space against this foe. It was more like the feeling she had against the sky-blue ZAKU.

Shinn kept his focus on the prototype, chasing the black Gaia, forcing her back more and more. Up above, Athrun took an opportunity to finish off another two Windhams.

"Damn it," Neo said. "We must retreat, we've used up all of our Windhams. This fight is untenable!"

Auel made a biting comment about Neo's lack of leadership that Neo responded to, noting that the pilot of Abyss had not gotten a big kill either. That just infuriated him to a rash, all out attack on the submarine.

Alex suddenly had a flash, a premonition of the submarine carrier _Nyirangongo _being destroyed, all hands lost. Even as she unlatched herself from the weapon platform part of Nobility, she shouted out, "Emergency launch of Nobility!"

Trine just stared, but Captain Gladys ordered, "Do it!"

The upper hatch opened, letting the mobilesuit core unit of Nobility leap out in a backwards flip to splash into the water behind _Minerva_.

Auel ignored the new mobilesuit, launching four torpedoes at the desperately maneuvering submarine. Auel stopped laughing when the Nobility knocked down three of the torpedoes with rail rounds. "What? How'd he do that?"

That was what Lunimaria and Rey were thinking. Rey had felt a huge spike of _something_ from Alex, then she launches a crazy, last second save.

The pilot of Abyss screamed, turning around and trying to fire at the sub again, but Nobility was slashing at him with a beam saber.

"Don't even think about it!" Alex yelled out.

The Abyss suddenly took off, retreating rapidly. Alex relaxed for a second, until warning lights started going off all across her consoles.

"Oh, shit!" She had sunk too far and seals were breaking. Nobility was designed especially for space combat and was capable of ground fighting if need be, but it looked like it was nowhere near capable of underwater fighting. "I'm losing control and thrust! I'm sinking!" she shouted in a panic.

"I've got you!" Rey shouted as his white ZAKU caught her and started to pull her upwards. Lunamaria's red ZAKU joined him in just a moment, despite her damage.

They put the damaged Gundam on the _Minerva's_ deck. It could not even stand up properly.

"That was pretty silly to do, Alex!" the red-headed pilot said scathingly. "What made you do a thing like that?"

"Ah-" She couldn't tell them of her abilities. She blurted out, "I just was so frustrated, that I wanted to get into the battle!"

Rey could feel that she was lying, that she was on the edge of a panic. "Let up, Lunamaria. It's up to the Captain to decide any punishments."

After publicly berating her, Captain Gladys escorted her to her private office. She looked over at Alex with a hard expression. "That was not the real reason, was it?"

"No, sir! If I hadn't acted, the _Nyirangongo _would have been sunk with all hands. I just reacted. I didn't realize the Nobility would react so poorly under water." Alex slumped. "I mucked that up pretty badly."

"Just about as badly as Shinn, it seems. He went a little overboard on that EAF base against Athrun's direct orders. But I guess he saw some soldiers gunning down civilians," the captain explained. "As you did manage to thwart the attack on _Nyirangongo_, I will waive your punishment. Try not to break your Gundam too much next time."

"Aye aye, Captain!"

* * *

It was later that evening in the 'ready room' that Alex stood at the window overlooking the repair bay. That was one of the things that she hated about her potential, that she would take actions before she really had time to consider it.

"So what really happened?" Rey Za Burrel asked from the open doorway. He stepped in and let the door close behind him.

Alex turned her head to look over her shoulder. "Why don't you try to figure it out on your own first?"

"I think you knew that the _Nyirangongo _was about to be destroyed and reacted with the only way you could to stop it," Rey suddenly declared. "You had a premonition that it was going to happen. And stopped it."

"A premonition? You make it sound like I'm psychic," she retorted uncomfortably.

"Aren't you? I could feel it when these waves of emotion came off of you, then you acted. Rather rashly, but you acted," Rey countered towards her.

"Who would believe that? Only another psychic or someone with uncontroversial proof." She continued to look at her Gundam being worked on. "Of course, it doesn't make you better than anyone else, it's just a talent that you have to develop."

"And you have developed it, haven't you?" the long-haired ZAFT pilot asked.

She closed her eyes. "I won't deny that. Here comes Shinn. Did you feel his presence during the battle? It's different in how it works in everyone."

"I did feel something." Rey had noted that Shinn had become much more effective during the battle.

Shinn walked in. "Oh, what's up? Sorry for intruding, but I wanted to get out of my cabin." He walked over and put himself on the couch.

Rey finally spoke with, "You aren't intruding. We were just discussing your amazing performance during the battle."

"I was just so frustrated. I didn't want to die so far from home," Shinn explained curtly.

"A survival instinct. Something all humans share." Along with hatred, love and determination, Alex thought to herself. It seemed humanity was always destined to fight and war with itself.

* * *

"We must take out this base, no matter what!" Commander Joachim Rudl said in the meeting room.

Captain Gladys nodded. "They have another positron reflector here. Not insurmountable, as the _Minerva_ has already faced one of these and overcome it. It does change the tactics quite thoroughly though."

Athrun was looking at the map closely. "I wouldn't want to send in mobilesuits to take out that mobile armor in the teeth of that fortress." It was a tough nut to crack. Not only was it nigh invulnerable thanks to the mobilearmor that could block their positron cannons, but it could effectively destroy any force that attacked it with its _own_ positron cannon. They had no such ability to block positron cannons at this point.

"I would like to go over this with my officers and perhaps see if we can work out an alternate plan of attack," Captain Gladys said, looking over at the commander for some sort of response.

"Fine. If they can come up with something, I'll be impressed," Rudl said.

Back on the Minerva, the pilots were looking over the upcoming battlefield. They were in the not often used conference room, watching the overhead view on a screen.

"Ah! This is a really tough nut to crack!" Lunamaria exclaimed.

"I'm sure I could take it, if I could get close enough. Impulse did before, after all!" Shinn exclaimed.

"Captain? How thick of rock and armor can the positron cannon penetrate?" Alex asked as she studied the layout. It was a citadel set up. It was almost classical World War I trench warfare, really.

"Now that's an interesting question. Arthur? Do you remember if it was 200 feet or 300 feet?" Gladys asked her deputy captain.

"Neither, though you are quite close. The positron cannon can penetrate from 250 feet all the way up to 500 feet, depending on thickness and density," the ZAFT officer replied smartly.

"I see what you are aiming at Alex. We'll just fire through a small piece of this intervening mountain and strike the cannon before it deploys its reflector. Not a bad idea at all," the captain said approvingly.

"Through a mountain?" Lunamaria exclaimed again. "I bet they won't be expecting that too!" Beside her, Rey had nod at that.

"Captain?" Athrun said from the doorway. "I think we might have a second string to our bow." Next to him stood a woman wearing desert garb and goggle around her neck. Athrun quickly outlined his idea through the caves using the parts of Impulse in an unassembled train.

"We'll do both, just to be on the safe side. Shinn, the cannon should be destroyed before hand, but we'll still need you to destroy the positron reflector moblearmor that they have there." Captain Gladys started giving out assignments for the upcoming battle.

* * *

The EAF commander sat in the air-conditioned comfort of his control center, listening to the reports of the approaching ZAFT forces with its scouting units already in sight. He was slightly worried when he'd heard that the _Minerva_ was part of the action, but its positron cannon would be as ineffective as any other ZAFT cannon. Suddenly, the mountain shook.

"Positron cannon off-line!" yelled out his artillary officer.

"What? Sabotage? What's going on?" he yelled out.

"No, sir! They fired their cannon before they had line of sight! It appears they shot through the intervening mountain!"

This was disastrous! He hadn't even though about doing that! "Scramble all units! We'll have to hold the pass conventionally!"

That was when Minerva hovered into view at the lead of the ZAFT forces, firing missiles, cannon and beam weapons at the mountain-protected forces. The rest of the ZAFT hover forces likewise was laying out a startling amount of firepower. The ZAFT mobile suits were bounding or flying towards the mountain as the OMNI's own mobile suits were heading to block them. Up above, leading the ZAFT mobilesuits, the Nobility was laying down heavy fire support while Savior was busy dealing with any of the more nimble air units.

That was when Shinn's Impulse appeared behind their line. "Damn! Guess I only get to take out secondary defenses!" With a yell, the Impulse assembled itself and landed on the mountain behind most of the forces, smashing the heavier beam cannon emplacements with his huge double-sword.

It soon quickly became a rout, as the OMNI forces were forced to surrender, though Shinn was once again forced to destroy the new, centaur-ish looking mobilearmor. The ZAFT forces floated by the newly freed city. The _Minerva's_ mobilesuits landed within the city to cheers from the newly freed populace.

Shinn was shocked when he saw EAF officers being lined up. The first officer was shot in the head. Before the second officer could be shot, however, the Nobility had slammed its foot down and rearly knocked everyone off their feet.

"STOP!" Alex shouted. She opened up the cockpit of her Gundam and quickly lowered herself down to the ground in the middle of the stunned crowd. "This isn't justice! This is murder!"

"They killed our families!" yelled the crowd.

"Then put them on trial before the whole world! All you are doing here is creating an endless circle of hatred!" she shouted, ripping off her helmet.

"This is a Natural thing! This matter doesn't concern Coordinators!" yelled the man that had shot the first officer.

"The hell you say! I'm not a Coordinator!" she shouted, surprising most of the crowd. "What happens when _I_ get shot down in enemy controlled territory? Do I get a choice about being dragged in front of their upset citizens and shot in the back of the head?" She glared at them all. "Hell, they may be as guilty as Satan himself, but they deserve the dignity of a trial."

"You don't know what they've done to us!" yelled the executioner.

"No, I don't." Her hand snapped out, catching his pistol hand. They glared at each other a moment, until she pulled his gun to her chest. "You might as well shoot me, because gunning these bastards down in cold blood is signing my death warrant if I get captured."

"You are crazy, you know this? But your words have weight." He pulled his gun from her loose grasp. He started shouting for people to drag off the EAF officers off to confinement.

"Thank you," she said.

"You are nuts!" Shinn exclaimed from up above, in the cockpit hatch of his Impulse.

"Do you want to be caught behind enemy lines by a vindictive mob?"

"No, of course not."

Alex looked over at crowd as they started to drag off their enemy. "It's when we forget that we are fighting people with families of their own that we overstep the bounds of civilized behavior." She knelt down, smiling at a little girl that was holding a flower for her. She tussled her hair playfully.

She didn't notice Connily, the freedom fighter, staring at her intently from the crowd.

* * *

The _Minerva_ powered into Diocvia port to cheers from the receiving crowd. Off in the distance, they saw what looked to be a concert that was in process. Alex could _feel_ Athrun tense up beside her, radiating distrust. She looked over at the startled looking Coordinator.

"Problem, Athrun?" Alex asked as she noted him looking at the stage the _pink _ZAKU with 'love' written on it with huge pink hearts visible.

Lunamaria looked over in surprise even as Athrun replied, "No. It's nothing."

The dock they were received by none other than the Director of PLANT himself, along with his aids. "Welcome, _Minerva_. Please, if you would accompany me. Captain Gladys, may I invite your pilots to accompany us?"

"Of course, Director." Gladys was the perfect model of military decorum.

Alex felt something from the captain that she had _not _expected, which was a warm, fond feeling of contentment at her meeting Durandal. She slammed a mask of impassivity onto her face to cover her panic, which Rey must have noted as he raised an eyebrow at that. The Director shook hands with all of them and then led them to a limo. It quickly snaked its way through traffic.

They were invited to a quite lavish dinner as the 'heroes' the Gate of Lohengrin. The Director told them they could not refuse.

Alex stared out the window moodily, seeing a band with a very memorable singer dancing on the stage to a hip-hop tune. Wasn't that the girl that had been advocating calm and restraint in PLANT's response after the nuclear attack by the Earth Alliance Forces?

"Alex, that was quite a coup, I have to say, to get those people to show restraint," Durandal said during the dinner. "You've become quite the poster girl for the professional soldier."

"Ah-! I was just being truthful, Director. It was nothing more than my duty as a solider," Alex said. Poster girl? Ack. She had no desire for fame or glory.

Durandal just smiled, then turned serious. "We need all the good news we can, as this war is obviously orchestrated. Even Cagalli Atha of ORB could see this."

Athrun frowned. "Orchestrated? All those deaths?"

"While the fall of Junius-7 is a terrible tragedy, it is not of those villains I speak. It is a shadowy organization known as LOGOS, the merchants of death to the Earth Alliance. These makers of weapons see war not as something that must be avoided or drawn to a quick close, but as something that must be fostered and extended to maximize their profits." Durandal stared off into the sunset. "These are some of the shadowy forces that are pushing for this war, even in the face of the minimal deaths caused by Junius-7 by your brave efforts."

"How do you attack the corporations behind this war? It is very obvious that they must control the North Atlantic Federation, if what you say is true," Captain Gladys said softly.

Durandal sighed. "That I can not say, as yet. I must pull back the shadows of PLANT's enemies yet. Until that is done, we are fighting shadows at this point."

The rest of the evening was spent by everyone going over the matter uncomfortably.

Alex was thinking hard to herself. Her Earth and its Earthspace had a huge amount of problems without real racial differences, unlike the Natural and Coordinators of this world. Was she being ignorant and arrogant, thinking that she could be above it, or was she showing her own intolerance?

Was she trying to prove she was better than any Coordinator? What was the line between pride and arrogance?

* * *

Alex was sunning herself, indulging in something that she rarely did... she was just lounging around the pool in a swimsuit. She had never been a 'sun-worshipper' but she decided to do this very mundane thing while listening to music. Not that she was in any danger of being hit on in her conservative one-piece swimsuit.

She could feel an agitated presence approaching her. And considering Lunamaria was usually a very upbeat woman, that must have taken quite a bit of work. "Lunamaria? What's wrong?" she asked in a half-dazed drowsiness of the sun-befuddled.

Luna looked over at Alex laying out on a patio chair through the open door. "Ah, nothing. I just saw Athrun with someone."

"I take it was a female somebody? I thought he had a thing for Cagalli?" Alex asked. She rubbed her forehead. Maybe it was time for a drink of water?

"You're starting to turn quite pink, Alex!" Lunamaria said, noting her outfit.

"I should probably turn over then. Though I don't really tan. I just burn different shades of red," she remarked with a grin as she turned over, the smart chair folding flat for her. It was only morning, damn it. "We should go do something today."

"Like?" Lunamaria asked, shading her eyes from the sun.

"Shopping. What do you think? Want to invite your sister?" Alex asked, while kicking her feet a bit.

* * *

Alex was sitting on her bunk, reading a book as she cooled down from her workout later. Her computer chimed with a message. She rolled her eyes. "Good job, Shinn. How the heck did he get himself in such a bad jam that he had to use his tracking beacon?"

Five minutes later, she was slipping on her duty uniform and set her cap as the door chimed. "Enter!"

"Aren't you ready yet?" Athrun complained in the doorway.

Alex just rolled her eyes. "I'm sure that the captain would appreciate if I tried to be slightly civilized. So what's going on?"

"Shinn's homing beacon just activated. It isn't moving, but its in a tight location, so we are going to have to take out a cutter." Athrun led the way to the docks where a military launch was being set ready.

"And we happened to be the only two still on the ship?" Alex asked, thinking things over.

"Exactly. Lunamaria and her sister decided to do some more sight-seeing and I think Rey was going into the city for a bit," the green-eyed Coordinator explained.

The cutter soon cast off, heading into the setting sun. Athrun conversed with the pilot as the two crew members kept a watch for rocks as they cruised closer to the cliff edges. They finally found the crevice that Shinn and a girl were trapped in that night.

"Ahoy, there! Shinn, you are really trying to cause a problem!" Athrun called out. Alex just grinned. The younger pilot wouldn't be able to live this one down for a while.

"I've got an injured civilian here! I think she in a trauma or shock!" Shinn called back.

"Looks like we have a knight in shining armor, eh Athrun?" Alex called out with a grin. She hopped to the little sandy spit. "I've got some first aid training. Let me take a look at the young lady." She put her hand on the new blonde, turning her slightly towards her so she could see her eyes.

She frowned for a second. This girl almost felt familiar. But that shouldn't be possible. Who would she know in this city that had a spark of Newtype ability? So she reached out with her empathetic senses, only to feel the girl suddenly lash out, swallowing her into darkness. They both started screaming, startling Athrun and Shinn where they were talking right beside them. The sailors looked up, startled and looking around for a possible attacker.

Alex clutched her head. "I don't want to die! dieDiedIeDIE! _I DON'T WANT TO DIE!_" She collapsed forward, smashing her forehead against a rock while still screaming.

Stella was shrieking like a banshee. "_OUT! OUT! STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!_"

Athrun yanked up Alex, whose eyes were wild and dilated as she screamed, blood dripping down her face. He slapped her, hard, trying to knock her out of her state. Behind them, the crew of the cutter were starting to look a bit panicked.

"This isn't working!" Athrun said after slapping Alex a second time.

Shinn grabbed Alex from the other Coordinator, pulled back his fist and smashed a punch directly into her cheek at full force, snapping her around. Both women stopped screaming suddenly.

"Well, that did!" Shinn called out. "Let's get them back to a hospital."

They dragged them back into the cutter and around the nearby dock. They were getting ready to load both unconscious women into a car when another vehicle pulled up.

"Stella! What have you done to her, bastards!" Sting Oakley shouted as he hopped from his car.

"Wait! She just collapsed! We need to get her to a hospital!" Shinn shouted back.

"You don't understand her condition. She's on special medicine and needs to get back to the clinic," Auel said from the driver's side of the car. "You are just making things worse."

Shinn looked over at Athrun helplessly. Finally, the older Coordinator spoke. "Let them take her. If they can help her, they will. And they know her, after all."

The red-eyed pilot almost growled, but nodded. "You take very good care of her. I didn't go through all that trouble to save her for her to get hurt again."

Sting gave a side-long look at Athrun's red uniform. "Of course. Come on, Auel. Help me put Stella in the back seat."

They loaded her up quickly, wrapping her in a blanket. Sting patted her head awkwardly. Auel was looking at the other comatose girl. The girl who was wearing her ZAFT uniform with a bruised cheek and blood on her scalp. "What happened to her?"

"That, my friend, is a million aado question," Athrun said. "We need to get her to a hospital. If you don't mind, we need to leave now."

The two vehicles drove off, giving the other group suspicious looks in their mirrors.

In the military transport, Athrun was thinking hard about the situation. "Get out of my head, hmm?"

* * *

Director Durandal stood in an one-way mirror observation booth, watching as a doctor checked over Alex. The girl lay unresponsive, almost in a coma with sensors attached to her head. "What is causing this?"

"We can't say for sure. But her brain activity is frankly something I've never seen. It's like her brain is caught in a non-physical grand-mal seizure." The doctor looked uncomfortable as he went over the unknowns. "None of our stimulants are actually waking her up. We don't dare give her any more at this point. She seems to have fallen into a coma of too much brain activity."

"I think she will. Alexis Pierce is too resilient and tough. I do want a full biopsy sample taken. I have a specialist in Aprilius-1 that I think should look at her genes to try and determine how this could happen." Durandal stood up and walked back to the main part of the hospital, where he met with Athrun. "Ah, Athrun. I do hope Alexis gets better. This is quite unusual, as I understand it."

"I'm surprised you are taking a personal interest in this," Athrun said with a passive expression.

"I consider the pilots of _Minerva_ to be very important in this war we are in. Alexis has already proven herself a canny tactician and able pilot. An amazing Natural, don't you think?" he replied.

"She _is_ a Natural? I didn't think those things were possible for them. They are hard enough for a skilled Coordinator!" the pilot blurted out. And what about that strange phrase that girl said. '_Stay out of my mind!'_ echoed through Athrun from that rescue.

"Yes, indeed. Her reflexes are actually almost as fast as your own, genetically enhanced reflexes. She has a remarkable kinesthetic skill. And then her intensive training as a soldier. A very rare young woman indeed." Durandal looked off in the distance. "But one in a bad state right now."

Back in the hospital room, Alexis Pierce's eyes were open as her breath became labored as her mind was assaulted with the thoughts and impression of Stella Loussier as the Altered of Phantom Pain was slipped into the mind altering cocoon to erase her latest adventure, clutching one-half of a broken sea-shell and a hanky. After one last titanic gasp, she collapsed back onto the bed as doctors and nurses tried to help her.

* * *

"She just woke up?" Captain Gladys asked the doctor on the other side of the communication panel.

"Yes. She seems to be a little confused, but understood her name and that she was in a hospital. It's like the episode just stopped on its own. Her brain activity is now very normal. Almost low actually. Unless she has a severe remission, she should be able to recover in time."

"Doctor? Would she be able to recover in the _Minerva's_ medical bay? We need to launch and I'd hate to be down a pilot."

"Well, I suppose. If we have to, we can always medic-evac. But really, she seems to be past the worse at this point. If she continues to be fine for the next six hours, I think I can release her."

"Thank you, Doctor Mijahame."

And it was only six and a half hours later that Alex walked on board the _Minvera_. She snapped a salute at the guards at the gang-plank and headed to the ready room after checking in with Deputy-Captain Trine and assuring him that she was fine.

Rey and Lunamaria looked over at the door, seeing Alex walk in. "Hello, Alex. You gave us a big scare."

"Sorry, it must have been some shock. I can't remember anything at all about it," she said with a laugh. She scratched the back of her head nervously.

"Did you hear? We got a new pilot and ZAKU!" Lunamaria said cheerfully.

That was when Athrun and Shinn wandered in. Athrun looked over, a very small smile on his face. "Oy! Alex, you are looking better!" he called out.

"Thanks!" Alex wandered over. "You must be the new ZAKU pilot. I'm Alexis Pierce!" She reached out and shook Shinn's hand, much to his and everyone else's surprise. "What's your name?"

"Alex, this isn't funny!" Shinn said, snatching his hand away. "I'm not a ZAKU pilot. I'm the pilot of Impulse!"

"No, you aren't. That's-" She stopped suddenly. "That doesn't make sense. I _know_ I should know who the pilot of Impulse is. But I can't remember." She started frowning, putting her hand to her forehead. "Why can't I remember?"

Rey suddenly put his hand on her should. "Alex, I think you should visit the infirmary. Before you have another attack." He led her off, feeling the confusion coming off of her in strong waves.

Athrun narrowed his eyes. "That's not normal. Something is going on and that woman is at the center of it."

"But, she's just a pilot!" Lunamaria exclaimed.

Shinn frowned. "I don't think she's _just_ a pilot. For a Natural, she's very skilled." Something tickled in the back of his mind. "And she had the same sort of attack that Stella had."

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Athrun asked curiously.

"Oh, I think Stella had been traumatized by something during the war. She had a panic attack about dying." Shinn's eyes widened in realization. "And Stella started going on about getting Alex out of her head!"

"You mean she has some sort of freaky mind powers?" Lunamaria almost squealed out.

"I think we should keep our eyes open," Athrun finally said. "Let's not jump to conclusions."

Shinn nodded. Though it was very strange for her to have forgotten him.

In the infirmary, Alex was laying down, even as her mind was churning. She had answered the doctor's questions truthfully, that she had never had any episodes of memory loss like this before. She started going over her memories since arriving on the _Minerva_ and the battles since, trying to force her mind to remember the pilot of Impulse.

_On the _John Paul Jones, _Stella suddenly stopped staring out into the blue ocean. Her eyebrows were raised up as she started to have small flashes of a young man with dark hair and red eyes. Such caring eyes, but she could not place him. Who was this red-eyed young man?_

Alex continued focusing on the aftermath of the first battle. _'Would you and your friends try to not get me killed next time, eh?' _and then the response of, _'Shinn Asuka,' _from the defensive boy. That was his name. His name was-

"Shinn Asuka!" Stella Loussier suddenly exclaimed. But why was she only now remembering? It was like the entire thing after her adventure on the sea-shore had been suppressed.

Alex frowned, feeling more flashes of insight. Something was unraveling within her. It was like a suppressed memory-

-was awakening within, Stella decided. Suddenly, she remembered that she had almost died and fallen into the ocean and Shinn, Shinn Asuka, had jumped in to save her!

"Stella, are you all right? Sting said you were acting oddly," Neo Roanoke said as he walked up.

The picture of the masked man was vivid in Alex's mind-eye. She shook her head, trying to pull back her awareness. She felt stretched out. For the first time, she realized that her empathetic power had been functioning, under strain this entire time. When she released it, it quivered as if it were tired.

That was when the door opened. "Captain Gladys!" the infirmary doctor, Marcus Paul, called out.

"Doctor Paul. If I could have a moment with Alexis in private?" the captain asked, doffing her uniform hat.

Alex struggled to her feet and saluted. "Captain!"

"At ease!" Gladys looked at her speculatively. "Do you have any idea what happened? I just heard that you couldn't remember who Shinn was for some reason."

"I- I think I had a psychic contact episode with an unbalanced mind. Insanity is dangerous and I wasn't prepared. I think I've broken the lock on my memory, but-" Alex stopped a second. "I think it was through the link. Someone caused that girl to forget Shinn and it bled over into me."

"Eh? How does that work?" Gladys asked.

She shrugged helpleslly. "I don't know. It's like she blocked him out entirely." Alex was very confused. She shook her head, as if bucking off the problem. "But I've worked past that block. I can remember Shinn now." She stopped and considered things. "So if Shinn wasn't our new pilot, who is?"

"Ah, that would be Heine Westenfluss. He brought us a new ZAKU Phantom too. So we should be especially ready for any combat that will happen," the captain responded.

"Oh, Captain? Did anything come of that idea for a Striker Pack for Nobility? I'd hate to be so useless again in the future," Alex asked.

"Yes. The ground crew cobbled up something and even mounted and tested it. Shinn did some test flights to calibrate it." The captain smiled almost ferally. "And we have sealed your mobilesuit versus deep water enviorments."

"Great! Thanks!"

* * *

The _Minerva_ was powering unopposed towards the Aegian Sea when the first warning of the upcoming attack fleet was spotted. The Dardanelles was narrowing and a fleet was coming over the horizon to the south. It was an ORB fleet with the EAF fleet behind them. They had a huge swarm of mobilesuits launched and in the air.

"Captain! Enemy force has been detected!" The operator started listing ORB Union assets; the carrier, cruisers and M-1 and Marasuma mobilesuits.

Captain Gladys snapped out, "Set Combat Level One! Order all mobilesuits ready to launch!" So they _had _decided to an all out assault with their reinforcements, hmm? "Fire anti-beam cannisters and set I-Field to full power! Prepare for anti-mobilesuit and anti-ship combat!"

The trio of stolen, ZAFT Gundams were powered down in the EAF carrier, ready to deploy after the ORB fleet had sufficiently bled the Minerva and its crew. Suddenly, Stella started screaming in her Gaia. "She's coming! _SHE'S COMING!_ We are looking the _wrong _way!" she powered on her mobilesuit, causing Auel and Sting to do so in response.

Neo Roanoke, up on the bridge of the _John Paul Jones_, heard that and wondered what she was talking about. Then it dawned on him. "Immediate scan to the rear and flanks!"

"Nothing- Wait! I'm detecting a heat flare at three miles... straight up!" yelled the radar operator.

"_ATTACK!_" shouted Captain Gladys, firing missiles and cannons into the oncoming mobilesuits as Impulse and Savior launched to intercept the Marasuma forces.

Nobilty was bleeding off re-entry speeds as a thermal bloom out of the Sun. "Attacking enemy carrier!" Alex confirmed as the heavy-beam cannon of the weapon platform fired with a resounding shriek of energy that slammed into the top of the carrier and vaporized a Windham in one of its cavernous bays, shooting right _thru_ the _John Paul Jones_. She then launched four missile packs that exploded into a shower of missiles. What was this impression she was getting from the stolen, black Gundam? She _knew_ that person. But how?

The CIWS (Close In Weapon Support) of the EAF fleet started firing frantically, trying to bring down the rain of death and incite fraticide among the missiles. Nobility fired its main cannon again, digging another deep hole thru the EAF Carrier.

"Ready Tannhausser!" the captain of the _Minivera_ called out. "FIRE!"

A string of anti-beam cannisters exploded in a chain from the ORB carriers even as a green heavy-particle beam splashed off the _Minerva's_ I-Field. The _Minerva's _positron cannon fired, trying to claw through layered anti-beam charges, but it only scorched the paint on the ORB carrier.

"Eh? They countered Tannhausser?" Gladys exclaimed.

"New enemy contact! It is the _Archangel _and _Freedom!_"

On the _Archangel_, Captain Ramius almost swore. "Our Gottfried's failed to inflict any damage? How is that possible?" A sneak attack like that probably wouldn't work again, but to find that the battleship was so defended was an unpleasant surprise

Walftfield looked over, very concerned. "It appears that the _Minerva_ has some sort of anti-beam shield that even covers their positron cannon." The rest of the bridge crew looked worried. That would be a huge advantage for that ship.

Cagalli launched in her Strike Rogue, beseeching that ORB should only defend itself and not be the aggressor. Their treaty with the Earth Alliance Forces was one of defense, yet they were here assaulting the ZAFT forces defending the Black Sea region. This was not the way of ORB!

Alex floated the Nobility off a distance behind the _John Paul Jones_ and waited. But she did not have a good feeling that this would work. A feeling that was born out, when Yuna Seirna denounced Cagalli Atha as either a fake or coerced by the renegades that had kidnapped her. He forced his ORB forces to attack head on, starting an all out battle between the three sides.

The _Minerva _had both of its remaining ZAKU for defense and Heine's GOUF to assist Shin and Athrun, thundering defiance at ORB and the EAF. Alex faced off against the Windhams of the EAF even as Gaia, Chaos and Abyss jockeyed for position. Shinn and Athrun downed Marasume and ASTRAY alike, even as Athrun started to duel with Chaos. Even Andrew Waltfield joined the battle in the custom Marasume with gold trim to defend Cagalli against some of ORB's Marasume.

Suddenly, after Cagalli's Rouge Strike was damaged by her own country's forces, Kira would no longer hold himself back. His mind kicked up into its heightened and accelerated ability, attacking and disarming each side indiscriminately. ORB Marasume and ASTRAYs were removed of weapon-limbs and heads, Windhams had their legs and weapons cleaved off.

Chaos and Abyss were taken out in single shots, forcing them to retreat. Even Shinn's Impulse and Athrun's Savior were taken out almost instantly when they ran afoul of Kira's preturnatural ability. Heine seemed to take offense at that, pushing his GOUF to attack Kira unceasingly even when damaged.

"Heine! You can't take him in that suit!" Alex shouted, popping off a long range shot even as the black mobilesuit Gaia was trying to interfere. "_Minerva!_ Launch Nobility's Air Striker Pack!" She charged with the ungainly Nobility in a high speed attack run, splitting up those three mobilesuits. With a last command, she unlocked the Nobility core Gundam, sending its weapon platform off to the north behind _Minerva._

Kira noted immediately something was off. Her armor did not de-phase when she was detached from her backpack! Nobility spun around in a blur, firing from the hip, forcing Freedom, and Gaia to split up even more. With a clank, the modified Strike pack slammed home.

"Okay, Freedom, you've mucked this battle up enough!" Alex declared, pointing her large beam rifle towards the famous suit. "If your goal was to stop a fight here today, you've failed! You might try to stop it before it actually starts next time!"

Kira dodged any of her attacks in a swooping twirl, showing he was in no danger. Still in his heightened mode, he fired all of his weapons with pinpoint precision... only to miss as Nobility rocketed sideways while spinning.

Alex was accessing her Newtype potential strongly, her pretunatural reflexes sending the Nobility to where it was not able to be hit.

Waltfield and Cagalli watched in astonishment as Kira's seemingly unstoppable attacks were suddenly blunted as the two Gundams tried to hit each other continually. Alex and Kira were both getting very frustrated as it seemed neither of them could land a telling blow as they swirled through the air like living lightning, higher and higher.

Below them, the GOUF and Gaia started back up their disrupted fight on the shores of the strait. The orange mobilesuit, with its damage, was finding the black quadroped Gundam to be a real handful. For her part, Stella was truly enjoying taking apart the new ZAFT suit.

"So fast! How is he avoiding my attacks?" Alex cried out in frustration. She narrowed her eyes, even as she avoided Freedom's next salvo. She just couldn't get the mobilesuit to respond quickly enough to attack accurately enough.

"Precognitive," Kira muttered across the open com, startling those listening in on the _Archangel _com-system. He set up a sequence of attacks that would force her to be hit hard, only to see her deflect a single attack on her arm-pauldron to disrupt the combination. _The pilot knew._

"Fine! Let's do this!" Alex shouted, suddenly charging while pulling out her Nobility's beam saber from its arm holder.

Freedom backed away, even as its own beam saber blocked the attack. He tried to riposté, but her saber was there instantly. Nobility's chest vulcan's stuttered out, stitching a line of ineffective fire across Freedom's phase armor, but sending him back. Her hip cannons raised up to fire. "Think fast!"

_The Archangel is behind me!_ Kira suddenly realized, switching from dodging to blocking, his shield taking a punishing kinetic attack and ablating the beam attack. "He's dangerous!" he muttered to himself.

"How about you let ZAFT deal with these murderous, genocidal scum and their sycophants?" Alex snarled, even as she fired again. "Back off! This isn't your war!"

Kira narrowed his eyes as he blocked another attack on his shield.

"Kira!" Cagalli shouted, firing at the Nobility only to see it effortlessly dodge. "The SEED Factor?" she whispered.

"Cagalli! Don't get involved!" the pilot of Freedom called out. "He's too dangerous!"

Flares rocketed up from the Archangel, signaling retreat. Alex swore as she realized that the EAF and ORB fleet had already retreated. That fight had taken all of her focus and skill. She was drenched in sweat.

But the attack had been thrown back.

* * *

Cagalli and Lacus met up as Freedom was being locked into place. "Kira!" Cagalli called out as the Coordinator came down on his line.

"Kira? What is wrong?" Lacus asked, sensing something from the man she loved.

Kira Yamato looked down the bay towards the launch area. "That could have been really bad. We must not underestimate that Gundam and its Coordinator again."

"He can access his SEED factor like you, can't he?" Cagalli asked, looking very worried.

"No, he has something else. I actually saw him react _before_ I had started my attack combinations," Kira said grimly.

Andrew Waltfield walked over. "You are wrong."

"What? No, it was very obvious if you were aware of it!" the pilot of Freedom exclaimed.

"Oh, not that. She is not a Coordinator though." The Desert Tiger looked over his shoulder. "That Gundam pilot is supposedly a Natural. Though she has a very mysterious past."

"A Natural that can match Kira in Freedom?" Cagalli whispered to herself. "That was Alexis Pierce, wasn't it?" Thinking back, she had reacted _before_ the sniper or thugs had attacked her in ORB.

"Yes. And I think we need to learn more of her and quickly," Andrew Waltfield said grimly.

* * *

It was a few days later that Athrun met up with Lacus, Kira, Cagalli and Miriallia Haw on a remote cliffside.

"I'm glad we could talk," Athrun said, trying to maintain his composure. "Things are... messed up. Why did you launch _Archangel _and interfere with the battle?"

"ORB should not be involved. It is has always espoused neutrality," Cagalli said vehemenantly.

"But that isn't the truth of the matter, is it?" Athrun exclaimed. "ORB has joined the Earth Alliance. The same people that launched a genocidal war against PLANT with nuclear weapons!"

"Cagalli had no choice in that matter, Athrun. The Earth Alliance was threatening to invade ORB if they did not join," Kira said intently. "But that wasn't the primary reason we launched _Archangel_. Athrun, we had to leave ORB because we were going to be attacked by both sides."

"What?" Athrun's worried glance conveyed a lot. "I could not even enter ORB airspace without getting attacked. And I heard rumors of your marriage," he finished softly.

Cagalli flushed at that, looking away. "Kira decided that I needed to be taken away for a while. So he kidnapped me during the ceremony."

"Would you have really gone through with it?" he whispered in a hurt tone.

"I thought... I thought I should, to keep ORB safe." She wasn't looking at him at this moment.

"Even though the Earth Alliance is definitely not to be trusted, neither is PLANT," Kira finally stated after the two failed to say anything for a long time.

"What? PLANT is the attacked party! The Earth Alliance tried to _nuke_ the PLANTs!" Athrun exclaimed almost angrily.

"We believe PLANT tried to have Lacus assassinated," Kira countered almost as angrily.

At Athrun's outraged expression, Lacus nods and starts explaining. "They sent an assassination team, Athrun. With new, special ZAFT mobilesuits to finish off the fight if need be."

"And then the fake Lacus Clyne," Athrun suddenly realized. "She is Meer Campbell. She's advocating a measured response. While it is more strident than I can see you doing, she really has been helping to keep the war from escalating to the sort of genocidal bloodbath that the last war almost ended up at." He looked troubled at the disparate threads starting to add up to _something_ being off about the Director.

"That only puts him one or two steps up from the Earth Alliance then, but that doesn't make him trustworthy," Kira said with a frown.

Up on a cliff overlooking the meeting, the red-head Merywin was listening in to the conversation gasped at that.

"He's the only thing _keeping_ this war from escalating into another mutual genocide. Say what you will, but right now without Durandal, all of the innocents in PLANT would be dead." Athrun glared at Kira for a second. "And I'd be out there looking for revenge too."

"He's playing a deep game," Lacus finally said, looking upset. "I can't ignore what he tried to do to me. And the attack on Cagalli was perpetuated by Coordinators!"

"You should not ignore it, Lacus. I'm going to try to demand some satisfaction from him on that score. But ZAFT can't cripple ourselves trying to keep everyone safe. This is too deadly," Athrun said. "I talked to him about that attack on Cagalli. He actually started grilling me about that attack, as ORB was suppressing the information."

"But I can't let ORB's forces be destroyed!" Cagalli exclaimed with anguish. ORB was suppressing the information on her attack? Why?

Athrun scrubbed his forehead. "It's not like I want to destroy them either, Cagalli. But they've allowed themselves to be used and they are trying to kill _us!_ What are we supposed to do?"

The blonde's shoulders slumped. "If I had a good answer, they wouldn't be fighting." She clenched her fist, a glint sparkled from a ring. "I have to find some way."

"Cagalli? You... kept it?" the love-struck Coordinator asked, his gaze stuck on her ring.

She looked at the ring for a long moment. "My brother told me that I needed to travel on the harder path."

"I'm glad you kept it," Athrun said with sincere feeling.

* * *

Alex landed her Gundam next to Impulse, locking it down with a tripod to hold up the weapon platform. She slid down her line towards the ground around the abandoned buildings. Looking over, she saw _Minerva_ landing in an abandoned field. "Make sure no one takes off with my ride, okay?" she yelled out to the ZAFT ground troopers who all nodded.

She found Shinn and Rey deeper in the facility where oddly preserved bodies were laying around. Alex found that there was an oppressive feeling surrounding the area, even as they started to pull up files.

"They did this to children?" Shinn shouted as he went over the read-outs.

"That doesn't sound good," Alex noted as she walked up, her flash light playing over the glass surfaces and the sprawled out body. "Seriously creepy."

"This is a base that specialized in creating the EAF's 'Biologic CPU.' These Altered humans were created to be a match for Coordinators," Rey said with distaste. "That they would do this to children..." Yet what did that say about him?

Alex took over the computer console. "Right bunch of bastards. Hmm. These aren't just performance enhancing drugs," she noted. "They look more like hallucangenic in nature. I'm not a doctor, but these are mind-controlling drugs. Brain-washing!"

"It looks like there is a lot of information to go over," Rey said while shaking his head.

"I bet the juicy information is not in these computers or even in the building. I bet you it is in a house within driving distance of this base though," Alex muttered. When Shinn raised an eyebrow at that, she continued with, "Military big-wigs are all about status. And nothing is a bigger status symbol than a large house that he can show off to his friends."

"Heh. The more things change, the more things stay the same?" Shinn asked.

"Of course," came the sarcastic response.

* * *

Later that day Stella snarled, even as she made sure her Gaia's communication system was fully locked down. How dare those ZAFT soldiers intrude on the Extended Facility. Gaia was in its quadroped form, a dark creature that was eating up the distance in great, loping strides.

"Captain! We are detecting an incoming signature! It's Gaia!" Bart Heim called out.

"Eh?" Captain Gladys exclaimed.

"Nobility Gundam, launching!" Alex Pierce called out. "Requesting Air Striker launch!" Her core Gundam unit lowered the weapon platform down carefully, then launched itself into the air. Alex narrowed her eyes. Yes, this presense was very familiar. It was that girl from the rocks with Shinn.

In moments she had the Strike Pack locked on and was moving to intercept the black Gundam with Shinn at her side. "Shinn? We outnumber her so let's try to capture this one."

"Such a pain. Why don't we just blow this hunk of junk out of existence?" the red-eyed pilot exclaimed angrily.

"I'm not requesting it because I think it would be fun," she snapped back. With a surge of speed, she sent her Nobility charging forward, spinning around Gaia's attacks.

Stella switched to humanoid form, firing her beam cannons at both Impulse and Nobility. Shinn blocked with his shield, while Nobilty just let it barely miss. She was starting to feel a bit worried, common sense starting to over-ride her anger. And she felt that presense in front of her again. She started to back away, but the two enemy Gundams slammed into her with a pincer attack.

Impulse's beam saber took Gaia's right arm even as Nobility slammed into the black mobilesuit like a runaway train. Stella screamed as her crash-harness tried to keep her in her seat. Gaia slammed into the ground, throwing her backwards inside and hitting her helmeted head against the back rest.

Another three brutal throws or kicks had Stella unconscious in her harness. "She's finally out," Alex finally said. "I'm securing the prisoner." In just moments, she had exited her Gundam and over-rode the access panel to open the black Gaia that was laying on its back

Stella was already begining to recover. "Are you an angel?" Wait, that was a ZAFT red and white normal suit.

"You are my prisoner. Hands up!" Alex ordered, her pistol out and pointed towards Stella. "Drop the gun. Carefully."

The other girl snarled, but she knew she had no chance.

* * *

"Congratulations on the recapture of Gaia and our enemy prisoner," Captain Gladys said with pomp and formality at the landing bay of the _Minerva._

Shinn just frowned, looking very upset. "We should have just shot her," he snapped out.

Alex rolled her eyes. "Shinn." She saluted the captain. "I believe that the prisoner is actually one of the Extended created by this facility. And in that case, may be as much a victim as any other Natural in this war."

"Be that as it may, Pilot Pierce, she is still a threat to my ship and will remain imprisoned and sedated," Gladys said coldly, gesturing to the two ZAFT soldiers that were dragging the captured pilot away.

"I would expect no less, but I feel that we should attempt to deprogram her as it will give us insights into the EAF's Extended Program," Alex responded curtly. Her back was ramrod straight.

Athrun and Rey shared a quick glance, obviously something was up that had Alex starting to be stubborn. Lunimaria looked confused, noting the undercurrent of hostility between the pilot and captain of the ship.

Gladys stared at Alex for a long time, eyes almost hidden under the brim of her uniform hat. "Intelligence on our _enemy_ is alway good," she finally said blandly. "It seems you have experience on this. So I'm assigning you to this for the time being."

"Yes, sir!" Alex replied, snapping a very smart salute.

"Fine, just leave me out of it," Shinn groused.

Alex waited until Shinn had left. "He's not very good at hiding his feelings, is he?" she muttered to herself.

* * *

Stella Loussier was laying in the infirmary, fuming about the indignity of her life. She'd been stuck here, sedated and in a fog, for most of the day. She was just clearing up a bit and was starting to plan her escape. That was when an Elite ZAFT pilot entered the Infirmary to look over the strapped down Extended of Phantom Pain.

"Well, other than a possible concussion, you seem to be doing fine, Stella Loussier," the blonde woman said, flipping over the medical chart.

"Like you care, Coordinator!" Stella snarled. She had beads of sweat on her brow, as she could feel herself becoming more unstable. She would need to be mentally rebalanced soon.

"To be so mistaken. For one thing; I do care that my enemies would take innocent children and brainwash them. And two; I'm not a Coordinator," Alex replied.

"Eh? You are a Natural? How are you wearing that uniform as a _Natural?_" the captive exclaimed. That seemed to upset her even more. "Damn traitor!"

"Traitor? Why?" she replied blandly, scribbling some notes.

"Because you are human, of course! To work with Coordinators for the extermination of humans is unforgivable!" Stella shouted as she strained against the leather straps.

"So resisting people trying to exterminate them with nuclear weapons is now unforgivable?" Alex replied sardonically. "That's an interesting viewpoint."

"We are just proactively protecting ourselves from space-monsters!" Stella was continuing to struggle, though she was not getting far. She finally gave up. It looked like these were restraints designed for Coordinators, which would hold an Extended just as easily.

"So what does Blue Cosmos and LOGOS have to do with the Earth Alliance Forces and their Extended program?" Alex asked.

"Nothing!" Stella blurted out.

"Really? Do you even know what LOGOS is?" her interrogator asked.

Stella actually stopped for a second. She did _not _know that. "No, I can't say I do," she finally replied, glaring angrily at Alex.

"So why did you shout that it had nothing to do with the EAF?" Alex made another notation on her notepad.

"I don't want to talk about that anymore."

Alex scrubbed her hand through her hair. "They really did a number on you, didn't they? Do you know what brainwashing is, Stella?"

"Of course I do. I'm not mentally deficient," she snarled out.

"No, you've just been brain-washed. What was your mother's name? Where were you born? Any childhood friends?" Alex started snapping out. "But you don't have any ideas, do you? Right now, you are just a puppet with cut strings."

Stella's head was starting to pound in agony. "Not true. I know who I am!" She just had a bad memory. Neo always said that. She needed to trust Neo. She did not care that she could not remember her mother or father. Her eyes were looking left and right as she tried as hard as possible to recall even one childhood friend. "Not true!"

Alex just looked at her for a long moment. "Why does talking to me now terrify you?"

Stella's eyes were dilated, locking onto the Elite pilot. _Because I can feel you and feel that you are saying the truth,_ she screamed mentally. She was shocked as Alex staggered backwards a second.

"Interesting." Alex shook her head. "I need to talk to Doctor Paul."

* * *

"Without the subliminal keys, it's going to be almost impossible to really deprogram this Extended. And her mind is starting to become disrupted, which is feeding back into her body," Dr. Marcus Paul explained. "Brain washing isn't anything new, but adding the drugs and invasive enhancers that the Extended have within their bodies, that really beyond a simple medic like."

"So we shouldn't even try?" Alex asked seriously.

"We can try, but we might be doing more harm than good," the doctor said seriously. "I'm not a qualified psychologist and I'm definitely not trained in these sort of unethical treatments. We need a specialist neural surgeon."

"You can handle the physical end? The chemical cocktail of drugs that they used?" the pilot asked. "I've had some training in deprogramming, but I'm not able to handle that part."

* * *

The _Minerva_ was powering along on the Mediteranean Sea near Crete when it detected the enemy again. The EAF's Phantom Pain forces had been reenforced and were ready for battle.

"Prepare for anti-ship and anti-mobilesuit battle!" Captain Gladys ordered. "Prepare to launch Impulse, Savior and Nobility. Hold our ZAKU back for defensive counter-fire!"

"Gundam Nobilty, launching!" Alexis called, igniting the engines of her Mobilesuit. She had known this battle was going to happen for almost twenty minutes, so she was already launching.

Captain Gladys blinked, then realized that Alex must have been forewarned to be ready.

"Send out the Gaia!" Heine asked. It would be sweet justice for them to use the Mobilesuit that downed him in battle, he thought.

"As soon as we acquire a pilot without a broken arm," Gladys retorted.

"ORB forces are launching missiles! It's a saturation bombardment!" came the warning from the sensor operator.

That was when Nobility fired a scattering of missile bundles straight up, causing a massive fratercide of missiles above the _Minerva_, even as their CWIS started to shoot them down much to the shock of Admiral Todaka. "That is the face of our most troublesome enemy," he told his second in command. "Luckily, our plan was to force them to react this way."

Amagi just grunts, but he understands what Todaka is saying. "She changes so much. It is like she has a witch's eye," he finally says in reply.

Yuna Seiran is pouting off to the side. "Are you going to lay the blame of this loss on wives' tales?"

Todaka narrows his eyes. "Whatever her abilities are, she is the only person I know of to hold off Freedom in single combat. We must not underestimate her strength."

The heavy bombs exploded, sending bomblets scattering. Nobility suddenly roared to full speed, streaking across the water. "Damn it! It was a trick!" Alex shouted, even as the upper armor of the _Minerva _was shredded through the first layer.

"Launch Savior and Impulse now!" Gladys shouted.

And here comes Abyss and Chaos, Alex thought to herself. "Shinn? Can you keep Abyss off me?"

Athrun was already moving to intercept Chaos as he came out of _Minerva_. "This one is mine!"

"Sure!" Shinn shouted from his green armored Gundam as it finished assembling; it was now equipped for long-range combat.

"Sure, just leave all of ORB to me," Alex said mirthlessly.

"Don't get greedy, Alex!" Athrun replied with a pained smile. "There's more than enough of them to go around."

Todaka was ordering his plan into place. "Move forward all Marasume. They must make fast attack runs to force that heavy assault Gundam to defend _Minerva _at all costs! Be ready to fire anti-beam depth charges in staggered formation!"

Yuna was looking very confused. "Why do that?"

"If we don't do that, it will attack our fleet and we are not nearly as strong as that battleship!" the admiral of ORB declared. "If we are not careful, we will be wiped out ruthlessly!"

"Damn it! These guys are good at swarming!" Alex shouted as she fired another missile pack to disrupt a bombing run by a group of Marasume fighters. The Nobility was an assault unit, it was just not effective in the defense role. Suddenly, she felt a presence with her _ESP_. "Ah, crap. _Minerva_, _Archangel_ is incoming!"

And indeed _Archangel_ had arrived as Rouge Strike and Freedom launched. Cagalli again beseeched the ORB Union's soldiers to retreat from this battle, that this was not the way of their country.

That lasted all of two minutes before Kira and Athrun were involved in another duel and Cagalli had been unceremoniously tossed towards _Archangel_ by the leader of the Marasume.

"Okay, that was spectacularly ineffective," Alex noted to herself. "Rey, Lunamaria; I'm going to leave the defense of the ship and try to get some of these fighters to follow me." She suddenly tilted back and then rocketed straight up. "Nobility Gundam, beginning full out assault on the enemy fleet!"

Arthur Trine blinked in shock in _Minerva's _bridge. "Captain! Nobility has abandoned our defense!"

"She knows what she's doing. And trust me, once ORB sees what she's going to do to their fleet, those fighter are going to be busy chasing after her more than pounding on us," Gladys said with a hard smile. "Prepare for rapid assault. We're going to attack when they are distracted."

The Marasume were no slouches, they realized something was up. While one wing chased after Alex, the other launched a load of missiles at Minerva.

The Nobility unlimbered its forty-five meter anti-ship beam-sword even as it suddenly changed from climbing to an all out dive. Alex fired the first pair of missile packs. Just as they burst into their micro-missiles, she launched a second batch. The ORB defenses were firing for all they were worth, causing fraticide among the missiles.

Nobility then came out of the explosions as it swung its anti-ship beam sword. The 35 meter weapon nearly cleaved an Aegis-class cruiser in half. Her main beam cannon tracked and started firing at the _Takemikazuchi._ Each hit shook the massive carrier.

"Ready _Taunhausser_!" Gladys shouted.

"No!" shouted out Todaka as he realized the pincer attack he had fallen into.

"Damage from that mobilearmor is becoming critical!" yelled an Orb operator.

"Evade port full power! Fire anti-beam charges-" Todaka was shouting when the _Taunhausser_ smashed into the super-carrier. The positron beam slammed into the carrier midship with explosive force.

The Marasume pilots all gaped damage to their ship. The _Takemikazuchi_ was listing, getting ready to go down. That was when Nobility slammed down onto the deck. Yuna Seiren only had a moment to look down the barrel of a megaparticle cannon through the blood of his cut brow.

"No!" he screamed in anguish. How could he fail before he had Cagalli?

The bridge of the Takemikazuchi exploded as the beam traversed all the way through thin armor easily. Then the anti-ship beam saber cleaved its remains in half and then down into the upper munitions block. Roaring backwards, the missiles and powder started to cook off, burning even deeper into the ship.

"You bitch!" Cagalli screamed, tears in her eyes. "I'll kill you!" The Rouge Strike suddenly screamed out of the sky like an avenging angel.

"Cagalli, no!" Kira shouted in a panic, only to be driven back by Athrun's Savior.

The Nobilty spun around and fired five times even as it roared up to meet the Rouge's dive. Cagalli gamely put up her shield, which saved that arm but slammed her back and off kilter. The next four attacks pounded home, blasting both legs off at the knees and then vaporizing its head and weapon arm.

Then the larger mobilearmor mounted mobilesuit slammed into the Rogue, heading back towards the _Archangel_. Inside the cockpit of the Rouge Strike, Cagalli struggled to work controls that no longer functioned.

"Damn you. Damn you!" she screamed.

"Get out of my way!" Kira shouted as he burst into his full potential. The Freedom suddenly ratcheted into high gear against Athrun's Savior. "I have to save Cagalli! How can you let her be hurt!?"

In truth, Athrun was shocked at the brutal take down of the Rouge Strike and was totally unprepared for the onslaught of the vastly superior machine. His Savior was brutally taken apart too, leaving him in the torso remains as it tumbled to the sea below.

The Freedom then roared towards the Nobility, just in time to see it toss the remains of the Rouge to him. "Catch," Alex said coldly. "What is more importan, Kira Yamato. Fighting me or saving your friend?"

That was not even a choice in Kira's mind, he was already diving to catch his sister. So that was how he found himself holding the Rouge Strike while the Nobility has every major weapons system pointed at them.

"Back off! Or else!" Alex ordered.

Kira narrowed his eyes, but only responded by heading back to the _Archangel._

Shinn let out a whoop of, "We won! We kicked their butts!" The Abyss and Chaos had both retreated with heavy damage when the Orb carrier had sunk. "Well, mostly. _Minerva_, how are you doing?"

Taylia replied from the frantically busy battle bridge. "We're going to be fine. We aren't in a position to chase them down, but we gave them a much bigger bloody nose than they gave us. Everyone, back to the ship."

* * *

Shinn casually walked into the infirmary again, noting the dazed expression on Stella. "Still drugged up?" he said rhetorically.

"No..." she responded. "Alex says its my synapse enhancers... becoming out of balance." She looked very dull, almost lifeless. They had her hooked up to a respirator now. "I remember you. You are Shinn. You saved me from falling into the ocean and drowning." She concentrated hard for a long moment. "They tried... Neo had them remove my memory of you. But I remembered anyways."

The red-eyed Elite Pilot almost snarled, but finally sighed. She looked so pathetic, but it was still that girl that danced at the edge of the cliff. And she did remember him? "I'm... glad you remembered me," he replied lamely.

"Shinn makes me happy," she said with a small, painful smile.

Shinn couldn't look at her for a long moment, staring at the ground intently. Carefully, he took her hand for a moment. "I'm sorry you are having this problem." He stepped out of the infirmary, almost starting in surprise when she saw Alex leaning against the wall. "What do you want?" he snapped.

Alex just gave him a frosty look. "I was giving you some privacy."

Shinn had the audacity to look apologetic. "Sorry." He took three steps, then stopped. "It's not going well, is it?" he asked over his shoulder.

"No. It's going really badly," she replied in as sympathetic tone as she could muster. "None of the records we have say how they are reprogramming them, as it was a top secret project. And without the subliminal keys, we are just stumbling around."

"She doesn't deserve this. She's just... She doesn't deserve to die. She's innocent." Shinn's shoulders were taut with tension. "Alex, if you can do anything at all, please save her." If she could not, would he be willing to return her to her people?

"I'm trying my best," she replied, hating herself for not being entirely truthful. She opened the door to the infirmary. "Such a problem," she said softly as she felt Stella's eyes upon her. "Not you too. I'm not Superman." There was only one possible way and that way led to madness.

Marcus Paul walked in. "Ah, there you are, Alex. Still no luck. Her EKG is still showing an acceleration in her deterioration. She probably won't last the night, poor thing." He took another blood sample and injected her medication. Then he spent another fifteen minutes clearing his paperwork. "You shouldn't stay here tonight, Alex. It's going to be bad for her. And ugly."

"I'm just going to stay for a while," Alex finally said, her eyes never leaving the dying girls.

She waited for the doctor to leave, his sympathy grating on her nerves. Alex finally sighed. Then she stood up and wrote a note. Opening the medicine cabinet, she retrieved and set up the particular mix of brain-washing chemicals that were used in the EAF Extended process. Filling the ampule, she set it on the tray next to Stella who was watching with as much interest as she could muster through her fogged eyes.

"This is stupid. I'll probably be locked up for this," she muttered to herself as she grabbed one last item. She carefully injected the cocktail of drugs into Stella's IV, then locked her own left hand to the frame of the bed with handcuffs. She tossed the keys across the room. She then laid her right hand on Stella's clammy forehead, turning her head so their eyes met.

Once again, Alexis found herself falling into blue-eyed madness.

* * *

Shinn stepped into the infirmary with the vague intention of saving Stella... somehow. Maybe even by kidnapping her to take back to the Earth Alliance if that is what it required. He stopped as he saw a figure slumped over Stella. "What's this? Alex?"

"She's kind of heavy. And they still have me tied down, even though I was so weak," Stella noted. "Hello, Shinn." She seemed much much more alert and awake.

"Oh, are you doing better?" Shinn asked. Was Alex handcuffed to that bed?

"Um hmm. Alex did some sort of mind-meld wammy thing. I'm feeling much better." Stella was looking at him quite passively. "Shinn. Shinn Asuka. I still remember you. You cared about me."

That was when Alex's head snapped up. "Coordinator," she hissed out. She leaped at him, but spun around on her handcuffed limb that left her sprawled. "I'll kill you!"

"What the hell?" the Coordinator cried out. He stepped back out of range.

"She took all the bad things into herself," Stella said in an unnaturally calm voice.

Shinn decided it was time to find someone above his pay grade. He was back in five minutes with Captain Gladys and Athrun Zala as they were busy straightening their uniforms after being pulled from their beds. Two soldiers were following them in, only to find Alex still handcuffed to the bed (which was still firmly attached to the floor, like all space-usable furniture) and Stella sitting across the room, next to the handcuff key watching the Elite pilot calmly.

"Bitch! Let me out! You know they are-" Alex suddenly turned to the door. "Help! The prisoner is escaping! You need to stop her!"

"Stop! Detain both of them. Use deadly force if need be!" Gladys ordered. "Athrun, if you could help with Alex."

"I think Stella is... pacified," Shinn said. "The one to worry about is Alex."

"She took all the bad things from me," the Phantom Pain pilot said. "I think I broke her."

That was when Dr. Paul showed up at the back of the group as the two soldiers tried to take Alex down. She turned into a screaming banshee, lashing out with any free limbs. The two soldiers 'knew' that she was just a Natural, so underestimated her for ten seconds. Alex actually had her hand on one of the soldier's service pistols when Athrun chopped down on her wrist with stunning force.

Shinn managed to get her into a half-nelson, while the other soldier had finally grabbed her legs. With their superior strength and leverage, they had her pinned, even as she kept swearing at them. Dr. Paul then managed to hit her with a tranquilizer in her calf.

Captain Gladys was looming over Stella who was still sitting quite calmly. "What is going on?"

"She left a note. I think she was worried that she'd be driven insane," the enemy pilot explained, holding up the crumpled paper.

* * *

Captain Gladys sighed, looking over the note. "This is quite the mess she left us with," she noted to the other FAITH members in the room.

"What does the doctor think?" Athrun asked.

Heine grumbled, "Probably too much." His arm was still in a cast with a sling from his last battle.

Gladys sighed. "Unfortunately, to use a famous old saying, Alex has a 'saving people' thing. Especially innocents that have been abused. Dr. Paul does show that Stella Loussier is doing much better. While not entirely stable, she is able to 'rebalance' herself with meditation now that she is no longer be hampered by her brain-washing."

"Is Alexis still under the affect of Stella's brainwashing?" Athrun asked seriously.

"It appears it is wearing off, but she is currently not as stable as any of us would hope." Captain Gladys stared at the display of her desk for a long moment. "Stella Loussier. This girl, who was once our enemy, has asked to defect. She wishes to fight against the people who caused her so much pain."

"Defect!?" Heine almost screamed out. "That sounds crazy! Almost as crazy as this whole mess!"

* * *

Auel stared back listlessly as Neo Roanoke was explaining the system he would be using. Sting would be in the repaired Chaos, flying over watch as he was piloting the new 'Destroy' Gundam.

"Are you all right, Sting?" Roanoke asked the young Extended.

"Yes, sir. Jut wondering on my ground support. I've never worked with them and the Gundam Destroy is... very different from anything else I've piloted." It did not even appear you needed a pilot of his caliber to use this. It was the ultimate sledgehammer of a weapon.

"Don't you worry about that. We have been sent here to punish the traitorish European Union for declaring a ceasefire against ZAFT while they send 'investigators' to find out more of this rebel group of Coordinators." Roanoke sneered as he continued. "They seem to think that any of these Coordinators should be allowed to live if they are inoffensive enough."

"Yes sir!" And Auel smiled at the thought of the upcoming destruction. Sting mirrored the look.


End file.
